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FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 


REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,  D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 


THE   LIBRARY  OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


Section        /S^fl^O! 


THE    ROMAN    BREVIARY 

ITS   SOURCES   AND    HISTORY 


\  r 

THE 

ROMAN   BREVlA* 

ITS   SOURCES   AND    HISTORY 


by     y/y 
DOM   JULES   BAUDOT 

BENEDICTINE  OF  FARNBOROUGH 
TRANSLATED, FROM  THE   FRENCH    BY 

A  PRIEST  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF 
WESTMINSTER 


B.    HERDER 

17  SOUTH  BROADWAY,  ST  LOUIS,  MO. 

CATHOLIC    TRUTH    SOCIETY 

69  SOUTHWARK  BRIDGE  ROAD,   LONDON,  S.E. 
1909 


mm  ©bstat 

Fr.  fernand  cabrol 

ABBt  DE   FARNBOROUGH 

imprimatur 

►f.  PETRUS 

Episcopus  Southwarcen. 

Die  31  Mar.  1909 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE 

The  little  book  now  presented  to  English  readers  is 
one  of  an  excellent  series  of  pamphlets  dealing  with 
questions  related  to  science  and  religion  which  has 
been  appearing  in  France  for  several  years  past.1 
Owing  to  the  large  number  of  tracts  and  pamphlets 
which  it  contained,  it  was  judged  expedient  to  sub- 
divide the  publications  into  series  dealing  with  the 
Liturgy  (under  the  direction  of  the  Right  Reverend 
Dom  Cabrol,  Abbot  of  Farnborough),  historical  and 
social  questions,  etc.  It  is  a  noteworthy  proof  of  the 
vitality  and  resource  of  French  Catholics  under  the 
trying  circumstances  of  the  times  that  the  issue  of 
so  many  books,  all  of  high  excellence,  dealing  with 
so  varied  a  list  of  subjects,  has  been  continued  with 
unabated  energy.  It  is  a  sign,  too,  that  the  French 
laity  are  eager  to  study  questions  of  all  sorts  bearing 
upon  religion,  and  to  welcome  publications  dealing 
with  these  questions  not  merely  popularly  but  solidly 
and  scientifically. 

1  Science  et  Religion  :  Etudes  pour  h  temps  present,     Paris,  Libra irie 
Bloud  et  Cie.,  rue  Madame,  4. 


vi  Preface 

This  short  work  on  the  Breviary,  although,  as  Dom 
Baudot  says,  chiefly  intended  for  the  clergy,  may  be 
read  with  profit  by  the  laity.  It  is  true  the  oppor- 
tunities afforded  to  the  English  Catholic  of  assisting  at 
the  performance  of  the  Divine  Office  in  its  entirety  are 
at  present  not  numerous  in  England  ;  still,  there  are 
few  large  towns  where  Vespers  and  Compline  are  not 
sung  on  Sundays,  and  Tenebrae  in  Holy  Week  ;  while 
those  living  within  reach  of  Westminster  Cathedral, 
or  one  of  the  abbeys  or  larger  conventual  houses 
scattered  throughout  the  country,  are  able  to  join  in 
the  public  liturgical  prayers  of  the  Church  as  fully 
as  their  forefathers  before  the  devastation  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

It  is  with  the  hope  that  English  lay  folk  will  learn 
to  value  more  highly,  and  understand  more  clearly, 
the  beauty,  dignity,  and  antiquity  of  the  Church's 
public  liturgical  prayer  that  this  little  book  has  been 
translated  into  English.  While  there  are  so  many 
books  of  private  devotion — of  various  degrees  of  ex- 
cellence and  authority — the  one  devotional  book  to 
be  used  above  all  others,  which  has  grown  with  the 
Church's  growth  and  nourished  the  devotion  of  her 
saints,  which  is  intimately  bound  up  with  her  history 
and  full  of  her  spirit,  seems  to  be  forgotten,  to  be  set 
aside  as  dry  and  archaic,  or  to  be  regarded  as  the 
private  property  of  clergy  and  religious.  Yet  there 
is  no  book  richer  in  treasures  of  devotion,  endowed 
with  higher  authority,  or  more  capable  of  producing 


Preface  vii 

in  the  souls  of  those  who  use  it  digne,  attente,  ac 
devote,  a  devotional  temper  at  once  hearty  and  strong 
and  truly  Catholic. 

As  will  easily  be  seen,  this  book  closely  follows 
the  arrangement  and  conclusions  of  Dom  Suitbert 
Baumer  in  his  monumental  work  on  the  Roman 
Breviary.  It  also  supplements  and,  where  the  author 
thinks  necessary,  corrects  the  brilliant  and  interesting 
work  of  Mgr.  Batiffol  on  the  same  subject. 

After  the  translation  was  in  type,  Dom  Baudot 
kindly  supplied  some  additional  matter  which  will  be 
found  at  the  end  of  the  book  under  the  heading  of 
Addenda. 

THE  TRANSLATOR. 

London,  2^th  February  1909. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE  v 

INTRODUCTION i 


PART   I.— THE   PATRISTIC   PERIOD 

CHAP. 

I.  The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch        ....        6 

The  Apostolic  Church— The  Second  and  Third 
Centuries — The  Commencement  of  the  Third  Century 
— The  Liturgical  Year  in  this  Period. 

II.  The^Post-Nicene  Epoch         .         .        .        .17 

The  Influence  of  the  Monks  upon  the  Development 
of  the  Divine  Office — The  Divine  Office  in  the  East 
and  West — Outline  of  the  Evidence  furnished  by  the 
Patristic  Period. 


PART   II.— THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

I.  The    Formation    of   the   Breviary    in    its 

Early  Stages 49 

From  St.  Gregory  the  Great  to  Charle??iagne. 

Section  i.  St.  Gregory  the  Great— The  Roman  Office 
at  St.  Gregory's  Accession — St.  Gregory's  labours  in  the 
Domain  of  Liturgy. 


x  Contents 

CHAP. 

Section  2.  Diffusion  of  the  Roman  Office  after  St. 
Gregory. 

Section  3.  Development  of  the  Office  and  Formation 
of  the  Roman  Breviary — The  Structure  of  the  Office  and 
the  Distribution  of  the  Psalms — The  Lections  from  Holy 
Scripture  and  from  other  Sources — Festivals  and  the 
Liturgical  Year. 

Section  4.  Some  Peculiarities  in  the  Office. 


II.  From    Charlemagne    to    the    End    of    the 

Fourteenth  Century  ....       86 

Section  i.  Alterations  in  the  Roman  Breviary  during 
the  Ninth  and  Tenth  Centuries — The  Transformation  of 
the  Responsory — Modification  of  the  System  of  Lections 
— Additional  Liturgical  Texts. 

Section  2.  The  Divine  Office  from  St.  Gregory  VII.  to 
Innocent  III. — The  Roman  Office  really  has  a  History 
during  this  Period. 

Section  3.  The  Roman  Breviary  in  the  Thirteenth 
and  Fourteenth  Centuries— History  of  its  Formation 
—  The  Breviary  in  the  Thirteenth  Century  —  The 
Roman  Breviary  from  the  Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth 
Centuries. 


III.  The  Roman  Breviary  from  the  End  of  the 
Fourteenth  Century  to  the  Middle  of 
the  Sixteenth 117 

Section  i.  The  Effects  of  the  Great  Schism. 

Section  2.  Attempts  at  Reform  before  the  Council  of 
Trent — Efforts  made  by  the  Popes — Individual  Efforts— 
Cardinal  Quignonez  and  the  Breviariwn  Sanctce  Cruets. 


Contents  xi 

PART   III.— THE   MODERN   PERIOD 

CHAP.  PACE 

L  The  Council  of  Trent  and  the  Breviary 

of  St.  Pius  V 135 

Section  i.  Preparation  for  the  Reform  of  the  Breviary 
— The  Theatines  and  Caraffa — The  Council  of  Trent. 

Section  2.  The  Reform  of  the  Breviary  carried  out — 
The  Roman  Commission  and  its  Labours — The  Publica- 
tion of  the  New  Breviary — The  Reception  accorded  to 
the  New  Breviary. 

II.  The  Roman  Breviary  from  St.  Pius  V.  to 

the  End  of  the  Eighteenth  Century     .     173 

Section  i.  Alterations  effected  by  the  Popes  in  the 
Roman  Breviary  at  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth  and  during 
the  Seventeenth  Centuries — Changes  in  Matters  of  Detail 
immediately  after  St.  Pius  V.  —Under  Sixtus  V.  and 
Gregory  XIV.— The  Work  of  Clement  VIII.— Changes 
made  by  Urban  VIII. — The  Successors  of  Urban  VIII. 
to  the  End  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

Section  2.  Liturgical  Developments  outside  Rome, 
and  especially  in  France. 

Section  3.  Attempt  at  Reform  of  the  Roman  Breviary 
under  Benedict  XIV. 

III.  The   Roman   Breviary   in   the   Nineteenth 

Century 220 

Section  i.  The  Period  after  the  Death  of  Benedict 
XIV. 

Section  2.  Attempts  at  Reform  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  and  especially  at  the  Vatican  Council. 

Section  3.  Additions  and  Alterations  under  Pius  IX. 
and  Leo  XIII, 

CONCLUSION 235 

APPENDIX 239 

ADDENDA 253 

INDEX 256 


THE 

ROMAN    BREVIARY 

ITS   SOURCES    AND    HISTORY 
INTRODUCTION 

I.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Breviary  is  so  little  known,  even  to  those  upon 
whom  the  Church  has  laid  the  obligation  of  its  daily 
recital  throughout  the  year.  Were  priests  and  re- 
ligious better  instructed  in  the  origin,  development, 
and  purpose  of  the  book  with  which  in  one  sense  they 
are  so  familiar,  we  are  confident  they  would  fulfil 
their  obligation  with  greater  fervour  and  respect,  and 
by  this  means  the  reign  of  God  would  be  more  per- 
fectly realized  both  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are 
priests  and  in  the  souls  of  the  faithful  entrusted  to 
their  care.  It  is  for  the  benefit  of  priests  occupied  in 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  who  may  have  neither  the 
time  nor  opportunity  to  consult  the  works  recently 
published  on  the  Breviary,  that  we  have  undertaken 
to   give   in  the  following  pages  an  abstract  of  the 


2  The  Roman  Breviary 

monumental  work  of  Dom  Baumer  on  the  history 
of  the  Roman  Breviary,  while  making  use  at  the 
same  time  of  the  less  voluminous  work  of  Mgr. 
Batiffol.1 

II.  To  write  the  history  of  the  Roman  Breviary  is, 
in  other  words,  to  describe  its  formation,  the  develop- 
ments through  which  it  has  gone,  and  the  transfor- 
mation to  which  it  has  been  successively  subjected. 
The  book  of  public  prayer  was  not  a  work  which 
could  be  perfected  at  once ;  it  was  a  work  which 
slowly  took  shape  under  the  united  influence  of  people 
and  clergy,  each  century  contributing  something  to 
its  construction.  The  divine  authority  of  the  Pontiffs 
intervened  only  at  a  later  stage,  and  then  rather  to  con- 
trol the  process  of  development  than  arrest  it.  The 
institution  of  the  Congregation  of  Rites  by  Sixtus  V., 
the  modifications  introduced  by  Leo  XIII.  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  creation  of  a  litur- 
gical commission  by  the  same  Pontiff,  all  show  us  that 
if  the  official  prayer-book  remains  unchanged  as  a 
whole,  it  can  yet  in  our  own  days  be  brought  to  a 
still  higher  degree  of  perfection  in  matters  of  detail. 

Three  chief  periods  can   be   distinguished    in   the 

1  Geschichte  des  Breviers,  by  Dom  Suitbert  Baumer,  1895, 
Freiburg,  Herder.  French  translation  by  Dom  Biron,  1905, 
Paris,  Letouzey  et  Ane.  Histoire  du  Breviaire  romain,  by  Mgr. 
Batiffol,  1893,  Paris.  English  translation  by  A.  M.  Y.  Baylay, 
1898,  London,  Longmans  &  Co.  In  the  following  pages 
references  are  given  to  the  French  translation  of  Dom  Baumer 
and  to  the  English  translation  of  Mgr.  Batiffol. 


Introduction  3 

history  of  the  Breviary :  the  Patristic  Period,  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  Modern  Period.  1.  The  Pat- 
ristic Period  may  be  called  the  period  of  formation, 
presenting  as  in  germ  the  different  canonical  hours 
and  their  constituent  elements ;  it  extends  from  the 
earliest  years  of  the  church's  existence  to  the  reign  of 
St.  Gregory  the  Great  {i.e.  from  the  end  of  the  first 
century  to  the  end  of  the  sixth).  2.  The  Middle  Ages 
open  with  St.  Gregory  the  Great ;  the  Roman  office 
has  taken  shape,  but  is  subsequently  modified  under 
the  influence  of  the  Carolingians.  St.  Gregory  VII. 
protected  the  divine  office  against  the  excesses  of 
secular  influences  until  the  time  when  the  office  of 
the  Roman  curia,  having  spread  throughout  the 
whole  Latin  church,  was  the  subject  of  attempts  at 
reformation  which  remained  without  result  until  the 
Council  of  Trent  (i.e.  from  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth).  3.  The 
Modern  Period  starts  with  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  its  chief  feature  is  the  Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V., 
Breviarium  Pianum,  imposed  upon  the  whole  church, 
corrected  when  necessary  by  Clement  VIII.  and 
Urban  VIII.,  superseded  for  a  time  in  France  by 
breviaries  drawn  up  under  Gallican  and  Jansenist  in- 
fluence, admitted  to  be  defective  in  certain  particulars 
by  Benedict  XIV.  who  had  the  intention  of  under- 
taking its  correction,  adopted  by  all  the  dioceses 
of  France,  and  always  open  to  improvements  under 
the     control    of    the    sovereign    pontiffs    and    the 


4  The  Roman  Breviary 

congregations  or  commissions  established  for  the 
unification  of  the  book  of  liturgical  prayer  {i.e.  from 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  our  own  time). 
These  three  periods  will  form  the  three  parts  of  our 
brief  history. 


Part  I 
THE    PATRISTIC    PERIOD 

This,  as  we  have  said,  is  the  period  of  formation, 
extending  from  the  end  of  the  first  century  to  the 
end  of  the  sixth.  In  it  we  find  the  first  outline  of 
the  Breviary,  in  which  can  be  distinguished  little  by 
little  the  distinction  between  the  canonical  hours,  the 
elements  of  which  they  are  composed,  and  also  a 
first  attempt  at  an  ordo  with  liturgical  week,  office  de 
tempore,  and  calendar  of  feasts.  In  tracing  out  the 
developments  in  the  churches  of  the  East  and  West,  it 
is  well  to  distinguish  two  epochs :  I,  the  Ante-Nicene 
epoch,  from  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  to 
the  Council  of  Nicaea  in  325  ;  2,  the  Post-Nicene 
epoch,  from  the  Council  of  Nicaea  to  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century  (328-590). 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  ANTE-NICENE   EPOCH 

I.  We  must  not  expect  to  find  in  the  earliest  years 
of  the  Christian  religion  a  set  form  of  prayer  to  be 
recited  as  of  daily  obligation  by  sacred  ministers 
entrusted  with  the  continuance  of  the  apostles' 
labours.  It  is  true  that  the  apostles,  at  the  very 
time  when  they  ordained  the  seven  deacons,  declared 
that  they  intended  to  devote  themselves  to  prayer 
and  to  the  ministry  of  the  word  (Acts  vi.  4),  and  so 
traced  out  a  programme  for  their  successors  in  the 
apostolate.  But  to  what  extent,  or  in  what  form, 
prayer  was  to  be  part  of  their  apostolic  labours  we 
are  not  told.  The  book  of  the  Acts  and  the  epistles 
of  St  Paul  show  us  plainly  1  how  the  first  Christians 
assembled  together  and  gave  themselves  to  the 
great  duty  of  prayer,  as  it  had  been  practised  in 
the  Jewish  synagogues,  but  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
what  were  the  days  on  which  these  assemblies 
took  place,  what  formularies  were  recited,  or  what 

1  Acts  xx.  7  ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  26,  28;  1  Tim.  iv.  13  ;  Ephes.  v.  19  ; 
and  Col.  iii.  16. 

6 


The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch  J 

was    the    general     character    of    the     supplications 
offered  up. 

Dom  Baumer  gives  us  the  result  of  his  researches 
into  the  apostolic  period  in  the  following  words : 
"  At  the  date  of  the  final  separation  between  the 
Christians  and  the  synagogue,  about  the  year  65 
(the  date  when  the  first  epistle  to  Timothy  was 
written),  the  Apostles  had  adopted,  in  addition  to 
the  liturgy  and  the  Mass,  at  least  one  hour  set 
apart  for  prayer,  and  probably  even  two;  i.e.  Lauds 
(originally  called  Matins,  because  celebrated  in  the 
morning  at  dawn)  and  Vespers.  Certain  psalms, 
the  reading  of  the  Sacred  Books,  along  with  certain 
chants  and  prayers,  not  yet  reduced  to  a  fixed  form, 
but  composed  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  formed,  with  the  preaching  of  the  word,  the 
basis  of  these  devotional  practices."  1 

2.  The  Second  Century,  (a)  Outside  Jerusalem, 
where  the  first  Christians  could  from  the  beginning  take 
part  in  the  daily  services  of  the  Temple,  it  does  not 
seem  that  assemblies  for  Christian  worship  were  held 
oftener  than  once  a  week.  After  the  prohibition  of 
the  Emperor  Trajan  especially,  it  was  necessary  to 
confine  these  assemblies  to  the  reunions  on  Sunday, 
to  which  the  younger  Pliny  refers  in  his  letter : 
11  Afifirmabant  christiani  quod  essent  soliti  statuto  die 
ante  lucem  convenire,  carmenque  Christo  quasi  Deo 
dicere,  quibus  peractis,  morem  sibi  discedendi  fuisse 
1  Histoire  du  Breviaire,  i.  p.  58. 


8  The  Roman  Breviary 

rursusque  coeundi  ad  capiendum  cibum."  The  vigil 
before  Sunday  was  connected  with  the  remembrance 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection. 

St.  Clement  of  Rome,  the  disciple  of  the  Apostles, 
merely  says  that  regulations  have  been  made  touching 
the  time  and  manner  of  the  celebration  of  worship, 
without  giving  further  particulars.  It  is  plain,  how- 
ever, from  the  context,  that  he  is  referring  to  acts  of 
worship  other  than  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  A 
document  dating  from  either  the  end  of  the  first 
or  beginning  of  the  second  century,  the  Doctrina 
Apostolorumy  or  AlSax^  says  in  chapter  viii.  that  there 
is  one  prayer  which  ought  to  be  recited  thrice  daily 
by  all  faithful,  i.e.  the  Pater  Noster.  Doubtless  this 
was  intended  to  supply  the  want  of  the  daily  reunions 
in  the  morning  and  evening,  which  could  not  take 
place  without  great  danger,  {b)  We  have  no  authentic 
information  concerning  the  official  prayer  of  the 
church  for  the  years  which  follow  until  we  reach  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century.  St.  Justin  Martyr 
does  not  expressly  refer  to  it ;  Clement  of  Alexandria 
gives  us  to  understand  that  in  his  day  it  was  only 
private  prayer  which  was  in  use,  and  regarded  as  of 
obligation.  Tertullian's  evidence  is  more  important 
and  distinct :  he  bears  witness  to  the  existence  of 
forms  of  liturgical  prayer  for  morning  and  evening 
(Laudes  vel  Matutinae  et  Vesperae).  From  the  details 
which  he  gives,  we  can  gather  with  sufficient  certitude 
that   in   the   third    century,  both  in    the   Latin    and 


The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch  g 

Eastern  churches,  the  only  official  liturgical  hours 
were  Lauds  and  Vespers,  but  it  is  impossible  to  decide 
in  any  precise  manner  what  were  the  constituent 
parts  of  these  hours,  or  whether  they  were  regarded 
as  of  obligation  for  all.  In  addition  to  this,  we  gather 
from  Tertullian's  writings  that  divine  service  was  held 
on  Sundays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fridays  (the  two 
latter  "  stations "  probably  came  into  existence  later 
than  the  first),  and  that  there  was  a  festal  season 
from  Easter  to  Pentecost,  when  fasting  was  forbidden. 
He  says  nothing  whatever  of  other  festivals  of  our 
Lord.  "  The  organization  is  obviously  very  rudi- 
mentary :  the  Passion,  the  festival  of  Easter  with 
its  preparation,  the  sacred  period  of  fifty  days,  the 
Sundays,  the  '  station '  days  in  the  week,  some 
anniversaries  of  martyrs  and  the  departed,  and  nothing 
more."  x 

We  gather  much  the  same  scanty  information  from 
the  writings  of  Origen  (f  251).  In  his  work  against 
Celsus,  he  speaks  of  "  prescribed  prayers  "  offered  up 
by  the  Christians  day  and  night  with  zeal,  perseverance, 
and  reverence,  but  this  may  mean  nothing  more  than 
the  private  prayer  rendered  obligatory  three  times  a 
day  according  to  the  Didache.  In  his  De  Oratione 
(ch.  12)  he  repeats  that  prayer  ought  to  be  made 
during  the  night,  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of 
psalms  118  and  62,  and  after  the  example  of  St.  Paul 

1  Dictionnaire  d ) Archeologie  chretienne  et  du  Liturgie^  i.  299, 
art.  Afrique. 


io  The  Ro7nan  Breviary 

and  Silas  at  Philippi  (Acts  xvi.  25).      But  this  has 
reference  to  private  devotion  alone.1 

With  regard  to  the  canons  of  Hippolytus  (of  which 
the  authenticity  is  much  disputed  at  the  present  day), 
which  represent,  in  their  primitive  form,  the  discipline 
of  the  Roman  church,  as  well  as  that  of  the  entire 
Western  Latin  church  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,  they  reveal  the  existence  of  a  practice  in  full 
agreement  with  what  Tertullian  shows  us  was  in 
force  in  the  Latin  churches  towards  the  year  200. 
Perhaps  the  sole  point  of  difference  is  that  in  Tertullian 
the  morning  common  prayer  (the  office  ad  Galli- 
ciniuni)  was  not  prescribed  for  every  day,  while  the 
canons  of  Hippolytus  state  the  contrary. 

St.  Cyprian  of  Carthage  bears  witness  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  five  stated  times 
for  prayer  were  recognised  during  the  day  (Lauds, 
Terce,  Sext,  None,  and  Vespers)  and  one  during  the 
night.  His  words,  however,  do  not  make  it  clear 
whether  or  not  he  considered  these  five  hours,  singly 
or  altogether,  as  a  public  office,  celebrated  by  all  in 
common.  Finally,  in  the  Acts  of  St.  Saturninus  of 
Toulouse  (died  about  250),  we  have  authentic 
evidence  to  the  fact  that,  apart  from  the  feast  of 
Easter,  the  anniversaries  of  certain  martyrs  were 
celebrated  by  the  people  with  vigils,  iravvvxia,  in  the 
third  century. 

(c)  As  a  result,  we  find  that,  during  the  years  we 
1  Migne,  Pair.  Gr.,  xi.  1359-1360  and  451. 


The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch  1 1 

have  just  passed  in  review,  the  canonical  hours  of 
Lauds,  Vespers,  and  the  nocturnal  Vigil  were  solemnly 
celebrated  by  all  in  common  in  the  assemblies  of 
the  Christians:  (a)  first,  during  the  night  between 
Saturday  and  Sunday — the  Vigilia  Dominicalis\  (b) 
a  little  later,  in  the  Wednesday  and  Friday  in  each 
week — the  Vigilice  Stationales  (the  name  "  station  "  is 
given  for  the  first  time  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias  to 
the  fast  observed  on  these  days) ;  (c)  then,  finally,  on 
the  anniversaries  of  martyrs.  For  this  the  faithful 
assembled  in  the  cemetery  where  the  martyr  was 
buried,  and  hence  the  name  Vigilice  Cimiteriales. 
The  other  hours,  Terce,  Sext,  and  None,  remained 
private  forms  of  prayer,  and  were  recited  in  common 
on  the  station  days  at  most.  Certain  psalms,  a 
lection  from  Holy  Scripture,  some  prayers  and  ex- 
hortations, formed  the  ground-work  of  these  hours.1 

3.  At  the  commencement  of  the  fourth  century 
we  can  trace  the  beginning  of  an  evolution  with 
regard  to  the  liturgical  hours,  which  had  its  origin 
in  the  Thebaid,  the  deserts  of  Egypt,  Palestine, 
and  Syria  at  that  period  inhabited  by  hermits  and 
monks. 

While  the  effects  of  this  evolution  were  as  yet  unfelt, 
the  Synod  of  Elvira  in  Spain,  held  about  the  year  300 
and  of  great  importance  for  the  liturgical  discipline 
of  the   West,   passed    no    measure  dealing  with  the 

1  Dom  Baumer,  i.  p.  78.  Batiffol,  Histoire  du  Breviaite 
romaiti,  pp.  14-15  ;  Eng.  trans,  pp.  13-14. 


12  The  Roman  Breviary 

organisation  of  the  divine  office.  The  documentary 
evidence  furnished  by  the  Fathers  is  very  scanty. 

(a)  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  in  various  passages  of 
his  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  written  between  327 
and  340,  speaks  of  the  public  chanting  of  the  psalms 
in  the  liturgical  office.  The  desire  of  the  prophet  in 
the  65th  psalm  has  been  fulfilled,  he  says,  by  the 
celebration  of  Easter  and  by  the  chant  everywhere 
employed  in  the  churches.  With  regard  to  the  91st 
psalm,  Eusebius  distinguishes  between  the  celebration 
of  the  Eucharist  and  another  hour  of  prayer  observed 
very  early  in  the  morning,  composed  for  the  most 
part  of  psalmody  along  with  a  certain  number  of 
other  prayers.  From  his  comments  on  the  142nd 
psalm,  it  appears  that  for  Eusebius  the  Laudes 
Matutince  or  morning  office  was,  along  with  the  holy 
Mass,  of  the  greatest  importance.  Finally,  in  his  com- 
mentary on  the  64th  psalm,  it  is  clear  that  in  his  days 
Lauds  and  Vespers  were  celebrated  everywhere  in  the 
church  as  public  offices  and  most  probably  daily.1 

In  his  Life  of  the  Emperor  Constantine,  the  same 
historian  says  that  every  day  at  fixed  hours  the 
emperor  shut  himself  up  in  order  to  say  his  prayers ; 
that  he  prepared  himself  for  the  Easter  solemnity 
by  austerities  and  fervent  prayer;  that  he  issued  a 
decree  to  heads  of  provinces  {prcesides  provinciariutn) 
directing  them  to  keep  a  strict  watch  over  the 
observance  of  Sunday ;  and,  finally,  that  he  enjoined 
1  Cf.  Migne,  Pair.  Gr.,  xxiii.  647-648. 


The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch  13 

the  celebration  of  the  martyrs'  feasts  and  of  the  sacred 
seasons.  These  seasons,  besides  Epiphany,  Ascension, 
and  perhaps  Pentecost,  were  the  days  of  the  Passion 
and  Resurrection  of  our  Lord — one  week  before  and 
one  week  after  Easter. 

(b)  Thus  we  find  at  this  date  Lauds  and  Vespers 
celebrated  daily  in  public.  Easter  was  preceded  by  a 
nocturnal  vigil,  irawv\ia,  and  so,  probably,  were  the 
feasts  of  the  martyrs  as  well.  The  remaining  hours 
were  matters  of  private  devotion.  They  were  mainly 
composed  of  psalms,  lections,  hymns,and  short  prayers. 

(c)  It  is  at  this  date,  or  perhaps  a  little  earlier,  that 
we  must  place  the  composition  of  prayers  and  hymns, 
partly  in  the  form  of  antiphons,  as  part  of  the  office. 
St  Basil  (f  379)  quoted  as  a  dogmatic  proof  of  the 
divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  one  of  these  hymns,  the 
Lumen  hilare,  still  used  in  the  office  of  the  Greeks. 
He  states  that  this  hymn  had  been  used  at  Vespers  by 
his  predecessors,  and  that  for  a  long  time  it  had  been 
sung  by  the  people  without  any  one  knowing  by  whom 
it  had  been  composed.  We  find  other  quotations 
from  hymns  belonging  to  the  first  three  centuries, 
but  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  they  were  used  at 
the  canonical  hours. 

4.  As  a  conclusion  to  this  first  stage  of  our  inquiry, 
a  word  must  be  said  concerning  the  liturgical  year 
and  the  cycle  of  Christian  festivals  which  seems  to 
have  grown  up  in  the  first  years  of  the  fourth  century. 
Easter    was    the    Christian    festival    par    excellence, 


14  The  Roman  Breviary 

Sunday,  or  the  Lord's  Day,  being  nothing  else  than  a 
weekly  repetition  of  this  solemnity.  Wednesday  and 
Friday  were  fast-days  throughout  the  entire  year,  with 
the  exception  of  the  paschal  season  (which  extended 
to  Pentecost),  and  on  these  days,  after  prayer  made 
in  common  in  the  church  {statio  militice  Christi), 
Mass  was  celebrated  at  the  hour  of  None.  In  certain 
places  a  fast  was  observed  for  one  week  after 
Pentecost.  We  have  conflicting  evidence  concerning 
the  forty  days  before  Easter.  It  seems,  nothing  had 
been  definitely  established  before  the  third  or,  perhaps, 
the  fourth  century.  It  belonged  to  each  bishop  to 
publish  his  own  regulations  for  his  diocesans.  The 
fifth  canon  of  the  Nicene  Council  is  the  most  ancient 
evidence  extant  for  the  observance  of  Lent  as  a  time 
of  preparation  for  the  reception  of  baptism,  or  for 
penitence  and  spiritual  recollection.  The  Embertides 
were  at  first  a  purely  Roman  institution  of  uncertain 
origin.  Dom  Morin  in  an  article  in  the  Revue 
Benedictine^  thinks  Mgr.  Duchesne's  hypothesis 
(Origines  du  Culte  chretien^  p.  223)  cannot  be  adopted. 
This  is  to  the  effect  that  the  Embertides  are  a 
survival  of  the  ancient  Roman  liturgical  week,  a  real 
fast  being  substituted  for  the  half-fasts  of  the  ordinary 
stations  (Wednesday  and  Friday).  But  then,  how 
could  St.  Augustine  say  in  one  of  his  letters  that  in  his 
days,  when  the  Embertides  were  in  existence  in 
Rome,  the  Christians  of  that  city  still  retained  the 
1  1897,  p.  337  et  seqq. 


The  Ante-Nicene  Epoch  15 

custom  of  fasting  on  the  Wednesday,  Friday,  and 
Saturday  of  each  week  ?  This  gives  grounds  for 
believing,  says  Dom  Morin,  that  the  Embertides  were 
in  existence  for  some  time  before  the  ancient  observ- 
ance of  the  liturgical  week  fell  into  disuse.  They 
appear  to  have  been  instituted  as  an  offset  to  some 
pagan  religious  usages  observed  in  Rome  during  the 
first  centuries  of  our  era.  The  Liber  Pontificalis,  which 
attributes  their  institution  to  Callixtus  I.  about  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  says  they  were  observed 
"  ter  in  anno."  At  first  no  trace  of  an  Embertide  is 
found  in  Lent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  pagan 
solemnities  were  held  only  thrice  in  the  year,  their 
date  being  left  to  the  choice  of  the  priests,  and 
publicly  announced  beforehand.  In  the  Christian 
liturgy,  the  services  for  all  the  Embertides  contain 
gospel  lections  relating  to  the  casting  out  of  devils,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Embertide  in  December,  which 
is  wholly  occupied  with  the  approaching  advent  of  the 
Redeemer.  The  aim  of  the  church  was  to  contrast 
those  passages  of  Scripture  which  show  us  the  evil 
spirit  compelled  to  depart  from  man,  with  the  pagan 
worship,  in  which  she  saw  a  public  homage  rendered 
to  the  devil.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century, 
Rome  was  alone  in  her  observance  of  Embertides. 
The  Ascension  and  Pentecost  were  celebrated  perhaps 
from  before  the  end  of  the  third  century.  It  is  not 
easy  to  decide  whether  Christmas  was  observed  as  a 
feast  distinct  from  the  Epiphany  at  the    beginning, 


1 6  The  Roman  Breviary 

or  only  after  the  middle,  of  the  fourth  century. 
11  Towards  the  end  of  the  third  century,"  says  Mgr. 
Duchesne,1  u  it  became  an  established  custom  to 
celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  but 
not  everywhere  on  the  same  day.  In  the  West  the 
25th  December  was  chosen,  in  the  East  the  6th 
January.  These  two  usages,  at  first  distinct,  became 
at  last  combined,  so  that  both  were  celebrated 
throughout  the  world,  or  nearly  so." 

Feasts  of  martyrs  have  been  celebrated  since  the 
second  century.  Every  church,  no  matter  how  un- 
important, had  its  diptychs,  its  calendar,  or  its  fasti, 
as  Tertullian  calls  them.  The  most  ancient  of  these 
lists  which  has  come  down  to  us  is  a  list  of  the 
anniversaries  of  the  Roman  bishops  or  popes,  and  of 
a  considerable  number  of  the  martyrs,  celebrated  in 
Rome.  It  was  composed  by  a  certain  Philocalus 
(hence  it  is  called  the  Philocalian  Calendar)  before 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  (about  336),  and 
represents  the  festivals  of  the  Roman  church  at  the 
restoration  of  public  worship  among  the  Christians 
after  the  Diocletian  persecution.  It  comprises 
twenty-four  feasts  of  martyrs  (six  of  them  being 
popes),  and  twelve  memorials  of  popes  as  well. 

1  Origines  du  Culte  Chretien,  p.  259. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   POST-NICENE   EPOCH 

THE  epoch  which  we  have  just  rapidly  considered 
shows  us  the  first  beginnings  of  public  prayer  in  the 
church.  Mgr.  Duchesne1  refuses  to  regard  these 
supplications,  variously  distributed  throughout  the 
day,  as  anything  else  than  purely  private  forms  of 
devotion.  By  whatever  name  one  may  call  these 
reunions  on  fixed  days  in  the  week,  or  on  the  occasion 
of  the  anniversary  of  a  martyr's  feast,  their  existence 
is  vouched  for  by  the  most  authoritative  witnesses  of 
primitive  Christian  tradition.  We  have  now  to  turn 
our  attention  to  the  elaboration  of  the  divine  office 
which  was  slowly  effected  little  by  little.  This  de- 
velopment is  not  without  analogy  to  that  by  which 
the  Apostles'  Creed  became  elaborated  into  the 
creeds  of  Nicaea  or  Constantinople.  It  seems  as  if 
the  lex  orandi  was  appealed  to  from  this  time  to 
determine  the  lex  credendi.  Both  owed  their  progress 
in  the  first  place  to  the  influence  of  local  churches, 

1  Origines  du  Culte  ckretien,  p.  433. 

17  2 


1 8  The  Roman  Breviary 

and  then,  secondly,  to  the  action  of  the  Roman  church 
and  her  pontiffs. 

We  are  still  dealing  with  a  period  where  entire 
liberty  of  action  was  allowed  to  local  churches  in  the 
determination  of  their  office  and  in  the  choice  of 
formulae.  It  is  necessary  to  take  account  of  the 
points  of  difference  between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
churches  in  the  construction  of  the  canonical  hours, 
and  one  must  also,  at  the  same  time,  allow  for  the 
influence  of  one  very  powerful  factor,  i.e.  the  influence 
of  monasticism,  which  became  very  widespread  in  the 
church  during  the  period  under  consideration. 

I.  How  did  the  influence  of  the  monks  affect  the 
development  of  the  divine  office?  Mgr.  Batiffol1 
answers  the  question  in  a  few  words:  "  The  Christians, 
while  they  increased  in  numbers,  did  not  increase  in 
fervour ;  they  neglected  even  the  Sunday  reunion, 
to  the  great  sorrow  of  St.  Chrysostom.,,  The  ascetics 
and  virgins,  who  from  the  earliest  days  of  Christianity 
had  consecrated  their  life  to  the  service  of  God,  now 
began  to  be  united  in  communities  under  St.  Antony, 
the  Father  of  the  Cenobites  (about  305).  This  fact  pro- 
duced considerable  effect,  first  in  the  East,  and  after- 
wards in  the  West.  The  monks  did  not  create  the 
divine  office,  Opus  Dei,  but,  as  they  could  give  more 
time  to  it,  "  they  organized  it  with  zeal  into  a  regulated 
and  characteristic  whole."  Since,  too,  at  this  period, 
"the  most  eminent  and  influential  bishops  had  either 
1  Histoire  du  Brev.  rom^  Eng.  trans.,  p.  15. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  19 

been  monks  themselves  or  lived  in  intimate  union 
with  monks,"  we  find  an  additional  explanation  of  the 
influence  of  the  latter  in  the  formation  of  the  office. 
The  Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvicz1  tells  us  that  in  Jerusalem 
the  monks  and  pious  lay  folk  celebrated  the  night 
office  in  the  churches  of  the  Holy  Places.  The  rest 
of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  priests  and  deacons, 
participated  in  this  office  only  on  certain  days, 
although  they  assisted  daily  at  the  morning  and 
evening  prayers,  Lauds  and  Vespers,  which  dated  back 
to  apostolic  times.  The  same  document  mentions 
as  canonical  hours  only  Matins  (or  vigilice  nocturncz), 
Laudes  (hymni  matutini  cum  luce),  Terce,  Sext, 
None,  and  Vespers  {lucernare).  Prime  and  Compline 
did  not  yet  exist.  The  spread  of  the  influence  of 
monasticism  in  the  West  is  due  to  St.  Athanasius,  who 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Romans  by  describing 
in  detail  the  life  of  St.  Antony,  and  the  monasteries 
founded  by  St.  Pacomius  at  Tabennae.  It  is  also  to 
be  taken  into  consideration  that,  as  parishes  were  not 
yet  founded  and  bishops  had  to  take  with  them  their 
cathedral  clergy  on  their  visits,  monks  drawn  from 
neighbouring  monasteries  replaced  these  clergy  in 
reciting  office  in  the  cathedrals. 

These  considerations  explain  the  part  played  by 
the  monks  in  the  organization  of  the  divine  office. 
Numerous  documents  attest  their  influence.      It  is  in 

1  Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvicz,  the  diary  of  a  lady  [Etheria,  from 
Spain],  who  visited  the  Holy  Places  about  385-388. 


20  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  East  especially  that  they  are  to  be  met  with  in 
the  fourth  century,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to 
quote  from  them  in  a  short  work  such  as  this.  They 
will  be  found  in  full  in  Dom  Baumer's  first  volume, 
pp.  109-169. 

II.  The  East. — In  order  to  show  the  state  to  which 
the  divine  office  had  attained  towards  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  we  must  give  in  brief  the  evidence 
contained  in  the  Institutions  of  Cassian  and  the 
Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvia  already  quoted.1 

1.  Cassian  wrote  two  important  books,  the  Insti- 
tutions and  the  Collations.  In  the  first  of  these,  he 
gives  us  detailed  information  concerning  the  divine 
office  and  liturgical  prayers  among  the  Easterns.  As 
this  work  played  an  important  part  in  the  introduction 
into  the  West  of  the  usages  and  liturgical  arrange- 
ments of  the  East,  it  may  be  well  to  give  a  brief  out- 
line of  it  in  this  place.  According  to  Cassian :  (A) 
Among  the  monks  of  Egypt,  it  was  the  custom  to 
assemble  twice  a  day  for  prayer  in  common — Vespers, 
and  the  nocturnal  Vigils  or  Matins.  At  each  of 
these  services  twelve  psalms  were  chanted,  and  two 

1  For  Cassian,  cf.  D.  Baumer,  i.  pp.  136-137  ;  Diet.  TheoL, 
edited  by  Vacant  and  Mangenot,  ii.  1823.  The  locality  of  his 
birth,  which  took  place  about  360,  is  uncertain.  He  was  carefully 
educated,  entered  at  an  early  age  a  monastery  at  Bethlehem, 
visited  the  monasteries  of  Palestine  and  Egypt,  travelled  to 
Constantinople,  Rome,  and  finally  Marseilles,  where  he  founded 
two  monasteries,  one  for  men  and  the  other  for  women,  and 
died  about  435.     He  is  thus  a  witness  both  for  East  and  West. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  21 

lections,  one  from  the  Old  and  the  other  from  the 
New  Testament,  were  read.  On  Saturday  and 
Sunday,  as  well  as  during  the  Easter  season,  the 
lections  were  taken  from  the  New  Testament,  the 
first  from  the  Acts  or  the  Epistles  and  the  second 
from  the  Gospels.  A  legend  attributed  the  number 
of  twelve  psalms  to  the  instruction  of  an  angel.  At 
the  end  of  each  psalm  or  section  of  a  psalm,  which 
was  sung  by  one  monk  while  the  others  remained 
silent,  all  stood  up  and  spent  some  time  in  medi- 
tation. They  then  knelt  down,  and  the  priest  who 
presided  recited  a  prayer  or  collect  in  the  name 
of  all.  The  Gloria  Patri  was  said  not  after  the  psalm 
but  after  the  antiphon,  and  the  twelfth  psalm  was 
was  always  one  of  the  "Alleluia"  psalms.  The 
Egyptian  monks  recited  privately  in  their  cells  an 
office  corresponding  to  our  Lauds,  and  this  completed 
their  stated  devotions  during  the  day,  though  they 
prayed  constantly  while  occupied  at  their  daily  tasks. 
(B)  The  monks  of  the  East  (Palestine,  Mesopotamia, 
Asia  Minor)  followed  different  customs,  (a)  It  seems 
that  the  night  office  was  longer,  though  Cassian  does 
not  express  himself  very  clearly  on  this  point.  He 
merely  speaks  of  Vigils  on  Friday  in  preparation  for 
Saturday,  and  during  the  night  of  Saturday  in  pre- 
paration for  Sunday,  adding  that  as  many  as  eighteen, 
twenty,  thirty,  and  even  more  psalms  were  recited. 
We  may  at  least  suppose  that  the  Matins  or  Vigils 
of  Sunday  were  composed  of  eighteen    psalms  and 


22  The  Roman  Breviary 

nine  lections — three  from  the  Old  Testament,  three 
from  the  Epistles,  and  three  from  the  Gospels.  There 
were  also  antiphons,  responds,  and  short  prayers, 
placed  either  between  the  psalms  or  at  the  end  of 
the  office.  The  office  of  Matins  (or  Lauds)  was 
united  to  the  Vigils,  and  contained  psalms  50,  62,  89, 
148-150.  {b)  During  Cassian's  life  an  alteration  was 
made  in  the  monastery  of  Bethlehem,  which  resulted 
in  the  creation  of  a  new  office  corresponding  to  our 
Prime.  At  the  conclusion  of  Nocturns,  the  religious 
retired  to  their  cells  to  rest  or  meditate  for  a  short 
time.  The  more  slothful,  however,  abused  this  liberty 
to  prolong  their  repose  to  the  hour  of  Terce,  and  so  an 
office  was  drawn  up  in  order  to  keep  them  awake  and 
mark  the  hour  for  them  to  start  work.  Three  psalms 
and  some  prayers  were  recited,  and  thus  arose  the  hour 
of  Prime,  distinct  from  Lauds  or  Matins.  The  date 
of  this  fact  is  390,  or  even  382. 

"  The  phrase  matutina  solemnitas  in  Cassian  means 
the  hour  of  Prime,  and  not,  as  is  often  said,  the  office 
of  Lauds."  In  addition  to  other  proofs,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  Cassian,  in  speaking  of  the  hour 
of  Prime,  mentions  it  as  peculiar  to  the  convent  at 
Bethlehem,  while  there  is  nothing  to  the  same  effect 
in  regard  to  Lauds  or  the  other  hours,  which  were 
then  common  enough  in  other  places.  Two  passages 
of  Scripture  which  he  says  were  chanted  at  this 
matutina  solemnitas  come  from  psalm  62,  one  of  the 
three  psalms  especially  belonging  to  Prime. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  23 

"  Thus    in  the   Institute   (bk.    Hi    ch.    3)  the   day 

hours,  apart  from  those  of  the  night,  amounted  to 
five — Prime,  Terce,  Sext,  None,  Vespers.  When,  in 
the  fourth  chapter  of  the  same  book  of  the  Institutes, 
seven  daily  offices  are  enumerated,  this  is  because 
Cassian  is  speaking  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  and  so 
includes  the  two  night  offices  as  well — Nocturns  and 
Lauds.  This  enumeration  not  only  dispenses  with 
Compline,  but  even  excludes  all  idea  of  it."  x  (c)  In 
several  places  Cassian  mentions  Terce,  Sext,  and 
None,  and  shows  that  these  hours  were  not  all  con- 
structed on  the  same  lines,  for  in  some  monasteries 
there  were  three  psalms  at  Terce,  six  at  Sext,  and 
nine  at  None.  However,  the  general  custom  was  to 
recite  three  psalms  at  each  of  these  hours.  The  little 
hours  were  not  recited  on  Sundays,  the  psalms  chanted 
during  Mass  and  Communion  being  regarded  as  suffi- 
ciently supplying  their  place.  It  does  not  appear  that 
the  versicle  Deus  in  adjutorium  meutn  i?itende  formed 
the  opening  sentence  of  the  offices.  Cassian  alludes 
to  it  as  merely  a  sort  of  ejaculatory  prayer  employed 
by  zealous  monks  to  stir  up  in  themselves  the  spirit 
of  prayer,  and  to  strengthen  them  against  temptations 
and  lack  of  zeal,  (d)  With  regard  to  the  Lucernare 
or  Vespers,  Cassian  refers  us  to  the  Mosaic  ordinance 
for  the  evening  sacrifice  (Numb,  xxviii.,  Ps.  cxl.  2)  so 
often  spoken   of  in  the  Old  and    New   Testaments. 

1  Pargoire,  Revue   d  Histoire   et   de  Litterature   religieuses 
for  1898,  art.  Prime  et  Complies,  p.  462. 


24  The  Roman  Breviary 

He  remarks  that  this  office  must  be  regarded  as  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  Last  Supper  and  the  death 
of  Jesus  on  the  cross.  "It  is,"  he  says,  "a  thanks- 
giving for  the  institution  of  the  most  holy  sacrifice 
of  the  Mass,  and  a  memorial  of  our  redemption." 
But  he  does  not  tell  us  how  many  and  which  psalms 
were  recited  at  it.  (e)  Fr.  Pargoire1  is  of  opinion 
that  we  find  no  references  to  Compline  in  Cassian's 
Institutes  (although  Dom  Plaine  is  of  the  contrary 
opinion),  and  that  neither  is  Dom  Baumer  justified  in 
ascribing  to  St.  Benedict  the  introduction  of  Compline 
as  one  of  the  canonical  hours.  He  maintains  that 
Compline,  as  distinct  from  Vespers,  was  known  and 
used  in  the  East  about  360,  and  in  support  of  this  he 
cites  the  37th  of  St.  Basil's  rules.  The  great  monastic 
lawgiver  enumerates  in  this  passage  the  fitting  times 
for  prayer,  and,  after  having  concluded  what  he  has 
to  say  concerning  Vespers,  and  before  treating  of 
Noctums,  he  speaks  distinctly  of  an  intermediate 
office.  This  office  can  scarcely  be  anything  else  than 
the  airoSenrvov,  a  part  of  the  Greek  office  recited 
immediately  after  the  evening  meal,  and  correspond- 
ing to  the  Compline  of  the  Latins.  St.  Basil  points 
out  that  the  recitation  of  psalm  90  was  obligatory  at 
this  office,  and  gives,  as  the  chief  purpose  of  this 
service,  the  need  of  obtaining  quiet  repose  from  God. 

1  In  the  article  already  quoted,  and  under  the  word  Apodeipnon 
in  the  Dictionnaire  cFArcheologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie,  i. 
2579  et  seq. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  25 

This  also  agrees  well  with  what  our  hymn  says : 
"  Procul  recedant  somnia  et  noctium  phantasmata." 

An  additional  proof  that  Compline  was  known 
before  St.  Benedict  can  be  gathered  from  a  passage 
in  the  Life  of  St.  Hypatius,  written  by  Callinicus 
between  447  and  450.  The  reference  is  to  an  inter- 
mediate canonical  hour  between  the  prayer  "  of  the 
torches"  and  the  prayer  "of  midnight,"  i.e.  Vespers 
and  Nocturns.  Hypatius  is  much  earlier  than  St. 
Benedict,  since  he  died  an  octogenarian  in  446,  having 
embraced  the  religious  life  in  386.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  superior  of  a  monastery  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Constantinople,  and  the  probability  is  that 
Compline,  having  once  been  adopted  by  the  monks  of 
the  capital,  spread  gradually  throughout  the  entire 
East.  "  It  seems,"  adds  Fr.  Pargoire,  "that  the  great 
monastic  rules  present  an  innovation,  for  Eastern 
monasticism  appears  to  have  known  nothing  of  Com- 
pline before  St.  Basil." 

But  to  return  to  Cassian  :  his  description  of  the 
divine  office  is  certainly  incomplete.  He  does  not 
tell  us,  for  instance,  what  were  the  prayers  recited 
between  and  at  the  end  of  the  psalms,  although  the 
antiphons  were  well  known  at  that  date.1  Still,  one 
can  make  out  from  his  work  the  plan  of  the  different 
hours  which,  Compline  excepted,  were  to  compose 
the  Roman  Breviary. 

2.  Sylvia,  or  rather  the  Spanish  virgin  Etheria, 
1  See  below,  page  32. 


26  The  Roman  Breviary 

describes  for  us,  in  her  Peregrinatio,  the  daily  services 
celebrated  in  the  principal  church  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
fourth  century.  According  to  her :  (A)  On  week 
days  there  were  Vespers  and  Lauds.  About  1.30  A.M. 
monks  and  virgins  and  lay-folk  of  both  sexes  as- 
sembled for  a  service  consisting  of  psalms,  antiphons, 
and  responds,  a  prayer  being  said  after  each  psalm. 
At  daybreak  followed  the  Matutini  hymni,  for  which 
the  bishop  arrived  with  his  clergy.  Then  there  took 
place  a  prayer  for  all,  a  commemoration  of  the  names 
of  certain  persons,  a  dismissal  of  the  catechumens, 
then  another  prayer,  and  the  benediction  and  dis- 
missal of  the  faithful.  The  assembly  broke  up  when 
it  was  daylight.  Terce  was  celebrated  by  the  com- 
munity only  during  Lent  in  Jerusalem.  At  the  sixth 
hour,  i.e.  about  midday,  the  faithful  assembled  again  ; 
psalms  and  antiphons  were  recited  until  the  bishop's 
arrival  was  announced ;  he  recited  a  prayer,  blessed 
the  faithful,  and  as  he  retired  the  people  kissed  his 
hands,  as  they  had  done  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
earlier  service.  None  was  celebrated  exactly  in  the 
same  way  as  Sext.  At  the  tenth  hour  (4  P.M.),  at 
the  time  called  "  Lucernare,"  the  crowd  returned 
to  the  Anastasis,  and  the  lights  were  lit  from  the  lamp 
which  burns  night  and  day  in  the  grotto.  The 
evening  psalms  (which  are  longer  than  those  at  Sext 
and  None)  are  chanted  with  antiphons,  the  bishop 
appears,  recites  a  prayer  for  all,  blesses  and  dismisses 
the    faithful,   who   once    more    kiss    his    hand.      A 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  27 

"  station "  with  prayers  is  made  at  the  chapel 
where  the  large  portions  of  the  Holy  Cross  are 
preserved.  Night  falls  before  the  office  has  come 
to  an  end. 

(B)  Sunday. — A  crowd,  as  numerous  as  that  which 
meets  to  celebrate  Easter,  assembles  for  the  Vigils  or 
Matins  of  Sunday,  outside  the  church,  at  a  spot 
illuminated  by  lamps.  The  psalms  are  chanted  with 
antiphons,  and  after  each  psalm,  or  after  each  anti- 
phon  and  respond,  a  prayer  is  said.  It  is  the  custom 
to  open  the  doors  of  the  Holy  Place  only  at  cock- 
crow. Then  the  bishop  arrives,  the  basilica  is  opened 
and  illuminated  by  a  thousand  lights.  The  prayers 
which  took  place  before  this  seem  to  have  been 
intended  merely  to  occupy  the  people  until  the 
beginning  of  the  office.1  Then  a  priest,  a  deacon,  and 
a  clerk  in  minor  orders  say,  each  in  turn,  a  psalm  and 
a  prayer,  incense  is  brought  in,  the  bishop  rises,  takes 
the  book  of  the  gospels,  descends  into  the  grotto,  and 
there  reads  the  narrative  of  the  resurrection.  The 
crowd  breaks  out  into  lamentations  at  the  thought  of 
what  the  Saviour  has  suffered  for  us.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  gospel,  the  bishop,  accompanied  by  the 
people,  goes  to  the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Cross.  There 
a  psalm  is  chanted  and  a  prayer,  and  the  bishop 
blesses  and  dismisses  the  faithful.  The  monazontes 
and  the  more  devout  of  the  lay-folk   return   to   the 

1  Dom  Cabrol,  in  his  edition  of  the  Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvia, 


28  The  Roman  Breviary 

Anastasis  for  the  celebration  of  Lauds,  which  is  com- 
posed of  psalms  with  antiphons,  and  lasts  until 
daylight.  From  this  it  appears  that  there  was  no 
solemn  celebration  of  Lauds  on  Sunday,  such  as  took 
place  during  the  week. 

A  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Mass  which  followed 
was  that  those  of  the  assistant  priests  who  wished  to 
do  so  addressed  the  congregation,  the  bishop  speak- 
ing last  of  all.  These  sermons  lasted  to  the  fourth 
and  even  the  fifth  hour  (10  or  u  A.M.),  and  not  until 
then  was  the  holy  sacrifice  celebrated.  The  Lucernare 
on  Sundays  was  the  same  as  on  week  days. 

(C)  Etheria  (or  Sylvia)  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  the 
festivals,  but  it  would  take  too  long  to  give  an  account 
here  of  all  she  describes.  We  give,  however,  the  con- 
clusions drawn  from  this  document  by  Dom  Baumer 
(vol.  i.  pp.  168-169),  on  account  of  their  bearing  upon 
the  beginnings  of  the  Breviary. 

"  1.  Towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  five 
canonical  hours  were  recited  in  Jerusalem — Vigils, 
Lauds,  Sext,  None,  and  Vespers.  Terce  formed  a 
sixth  hour  during  Lent. 

"  2.  The  festivals  celebrated  during  the  year  were 
Epiphany  (commemorating  the  birth  and  manifesta- 
tion of  our  Lord)  on  the  6th  January ;  Easter,  with 
the  preceding  ceremonies  (which  lasted  for  eight 
weeks) ;  the  Ascension  and  Pentecost ;  lastly,  the 
Dedication,  and  the  festival  of  the  Invention  of  the 
Holy  Cross  on  the  14th  September.     The  festivals  of 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  29 

the  martyrs  are  also  mentioned  (in  the  description  of 
Lent)  but  without  any  being  named  in  particular. 

"  3.  The  chief  festivals  —  Epiphany,  Easter,  the 
Dedication,  the  Invention  of  the  Holy  Cross — were 
celebrated  with  an  octave. 

"4.  The  psalms  were  chanted  with  antiphons, 
prayers,  responds,  and  hymns.  The  lections  were 
taken  from  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  At 
the  conclusion  of  Matins  on  Sunday,  the  bishop 
sang  the  gospel  of  the  Resurrection. 

11  5.  The  people  and  clergy  assisted  at  Matins  on 
Sunday,,  on  Friday  in  preparation  for  Saturday,  and 
on  certain  other  occasions,  but  during  the  week  the 
celebration  of  Matins  was  performed  by  the  monks 
and  more  devout  of  the  people,  assisted  by  some 
priests  or  deacons,  who  recited  the  prayers  or  collects. 

"6.  The  antiphons,prayers,lections,psalms,responds, 
and  hymns  were  chosen  with  special  reference  to  the 
particular  mystery  commemorated.  This  struck  the 
western  pilgrim  as  so  new  and  interesting  that  she  is 
continually  alluding  to  it.  Here  we  have  the  first 
attempts  at  bringing  the  mysteries  of  the  ecclesiastical 
year  to  bear  upon  the  divine  office  and  the  liturgy  of 
the  Mass — both  having  been  heretofore,  as  they  still 
were  in  the  West,  composed  of  invariable  prayers 
and  chants." 

III.  The  West. — (1)  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  state 
of  liturgical  devotions  in  the  West  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century.     Tertullian  and  St.   Cyprian    have 


30  The  Roman  Breviary 

been  our  witnesses  for  Africa  in  the  third  century. 
After  their  date,  various  elements  were  imported  into 
the  formularies  of  prayer  from  the  East,  such  as  anti- 
phonal  chanting  and  hymns.  (A)  St.  Hilary  of 
Poitiers  writes  that  in  his  time  (towards  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century)  Lauds  and  Vespers  were  recited 
in  Gaul.  Vigils  were  probably  recited  also  on  certain 
days.1  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Isidore  say  of  St.  Hilary 
that  he  composed  hymns  like  those  used  in  the  Greek 
Syrian  churches. 

(B)  But  it  was  chiefly  due  to  St.  Ambrose  that 
antiphonal  chanting  and  hymns  were  introduced  in 
the  West,  and  that  greater  care  was  bestowed  upon 
the  celebration  of  Vigils.  Starting  from  Milan,  the 
usage  spread  to  other  churches,  and  the  city,  already 
rendered  illustrious  by  its  great  bishop,  became  a  centre 
of  liturgical  enrichment  and  development.  That  a 
particular  church  should  exert  so  widespread  an  in- 
fluence at  this  period  is  nothing  remarkable,  consider- 
ing that  each  church  was  then  free  to  make  what 
alterations  and  innovations  it  thought  good  in  its 
formularies  of  prayer.  It  is  interesting  to  recall  what 
were  the  circumstances  under  which  St.  Ambrose  was 
led  to  modify  the  contents  and  manner  of  performing 
the  divine  office.  St.  Augustine,  an  eye-witness,  has 
told  the  story  in  his  Confessions}     It  was  in  the  Holy 

1  Commentary  on  Psalms^  64  and  118.     Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  ix. 
420,  550. 

2  Bk.  ix.  ch.  7.     Migne,  Patr,  Lat^  xxxii.  770. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  31 

Week  of  385.  Milan  was  in  an  uproar  in  consequence 
of  the  claims  made  by  the  Arians.  On  Palm  Sunday 
(6th  April),  St.  Ambrose  was  concluding  the  sacred 
ceremonies  in  a  magnificent  church  recently  con- 
structed, called  the  Portian  Basilica,  when  it  and 
another  church  were  claimed  by  the  court  for 
Arian  worship.  The  bishop  met  the  demands  of 
the  court  by  a  direct  refusal  ;  but,  fearing  lest  his 
flock  should  vent  their  indignation  against  the  Arians 
in  an  unjustifiable  manner,  he  assembled  them  in 
the  principal  church  of  Milan,  like  a  general  refus- 
ing to  be  driven  from  his  post.  During  Sunday 
and  the  three  following  days  he  remained  with 
his  people  in  the  basilica  claimed  by  the  Arians, 
surrounded  by  the  imperial  troops.  Then  it  was 
that,  in  order  to  occupy  the  long  and  anxious  hours, 
St.  Ambrose  introduced  into  the  office  the  antiphonal 
chanting  of  psalms  by  two  choirs,  with  antiphons, 
versicles,  and  several  hymns  of  his  own  composi- 
tion. He  adopted  this  custom  from  the  Eastern 
churches. 

The  innovation  quickly  spread  throughout  all  Italy, 
and  was  adopted  even  at  Rome  itself,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Milanese  priest  Paulinus,  St.  Augustine,  Pope 
Celestine  I.  in  an  address  delivered  before  a  council 
in  Rome,  and  from  a  letter  of  Bishop  Faustus  of  Riez. 
It  became  in  time  fully  established  ;  and  as  it  is 
perpetuated  in  the  Roman  Breviary,  we  must  turn 
our  attention  to  it  for  a  few  moments. 


32  The  Roman  Breviary 

The  antiphon l  (that  which  echoes  back  the  sound) 
is  a  chant  performed  alternately  by  two  choirs,  and 
was  already  used  in  the  pagan  drama.  At  what 
period  exactly  it  came  into  use  among  the  Christians, 
it  seems  hard  to  say.  If  we  are  to  believe  the  historian 
Socrates,  it  was  St.  Ignatius,  the  second  bishop  of 
Antioch,  who  introduced  this  alternate  manner  of 
chanting  into  the  church,  but  no  traces  of  its  existence 
appear  before  the  fourth  century.  Between  348  and 
358  two  members  of  a  band  of  ascetics  at  Antioch, 
Flavian  and  Diodore,  conceived  the  idea  of  associat- 
ing the  Christian  laity  with  themselves  in  chanting 
the  psalter  during  the  night.  This  was  intended  to 
counterbalance  the  influence  of  the  Arians  and  of  the 
bishop,  Leontius,  who  was  secretly  in  sympathy  with 
the  heretics.  Following  the  practice  of  the  Syrian 
churches,  these  ascetics,  instead  of  letting  the  lector 
recite  the  psalm,  directed  that  it  should  be  sung 
alternately  by  the  faithful,  divided  into  two  choirs, 
both  of  which  were  to  unite  only  in  singing  a  refrain. 
The  doxology  Gloria  Patri  was  certainly  one  of  these 
refrains.  St.  Basil,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Holy  Spirit, 
informs  us  that  the  formula  was  known  in  his  time, 
although  in  slightly  varying  forms.2     Arius  attempted 

1  For  further  details,  see  Diction.  d'Archeol.  chretie7ine  et  de 
Liturgie,  by  Dom  Cabrol,  i.,  2282  et  seq.,  2428-2430,  under  the 
word  Antienne  (Liturgie) — Antioche  (Liturg.). 

2  Nuper  precanti  mihi  cum  populo  et  utroque  modo  glorificati- 
on em  absolvendiDeoac  Patri  inter dum  cum  Filio  una  cum  Sancto 
Spiritu,  interdum  per  Filium  in  Sancto  Spiritu.  Pair.  Gr.,xxx\\.j2. 


The  Post-Niccne  Epoch  33 

to  substitute  another  form — "  Gloria  Patri  per  Filium 
in  Spiritu  Sancto" — quite  unobjectionable  in  itself, 
but  rejected  on  account  of  the  meaning  given  to  it, 
and  the  intention  of  those  who  employed  it.  The 
ordinary  form  of  the  doxology — Glory  be  to  the 
Father  and  to  the  Son  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost — was 
adopted  to  repel  Arianism,  and  attained  to  an  im- 
portant position  in  the  liturgy.  It  is  found  from  this 
period  onwards  in  the  churches  of  Antioch,  Jerusalem, 
and  Constantinople.  The  faithful  thus  had  a  short 
theological  formula  wherewith  to  cut  short  every 
dispute.  Theodoret  {Hist.  EccL,  ii.  19)  tells  us 
how  the  vacillating  bishop,  Leontius,  seeing  his 
clergy  and  people  divided  between  the  two  forms 
u  Gloria  Patri  et  Filio  et  Spiritui  Sancto,"  and 
"  Gloria  Patri  cum  Filio  in  Spiritu  Sancto,"  con- 
trived that  the  faithful  could  hear  him  sing  only  the 
conclusion — "in  saecula  sseculorum.  Amen."  May 
we  regard  St.  Ephrem  (f  363)  or  even  Bardesanes 
of  Edessa  (154-222)  as  the  originator  of  these 
doxologies?  The  attempt  to  do  so  has  not  yet 
resulted  in  more  than  an  hypothesis.  Dom  Leclercq, 
under  the  word  "  Antienne  (Litargie)"  quotes  a 
fragment  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  according  to 
which  the  formula  would  seem  to  be  of  Syrian 
origin,  and  thus  all  that  Flavian  and  Diodore  did 
was  to  translate  it  from  Syriac  into  Greek.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Canons  of  Hippolytus  enjoin 
"  Gloria    tibi    Patri    et    Filio   et    Spiritui    Sancto   in 

3 


34  The  Roman  Breviary 

saecula  saeculorum.  Amen,"  as  a  doxology  to  the 
prayers.1 

It  was  with  the  same  intention  of  counteracting  the 
evil  influence  of  the  Arians,  who  energetically  spread 
their  errors  by  means  of  popular  songs,  that  St. 
Ambrose  trained  the  faithful  to  sing  hymns  which 
gave  expression  to  orthodox  tenets.  He  himself 
composed  some  of  these  hymns,  though  probably  not 
so  many  as  have  been  attributed  to  him.  Writers  of 
a  later  date,  who  followed  his  example,  either  were 
desirous  of  gaining  acceptance  for  their  compositions 
by  using  his  name,  or  attempted  to  imitate  the 
particular  kind  of  composition  which  he  had  in- 
troduced.2 

(C)  St.  Ambrose,  then,  celebrated  the  office  of  Vigils 
in  church  along  with  his  people,  He  also  speaks  of 
the  Laudes  Matutince  and  of  the  day  hours.  We 
know,  moreover,  that  the  hymns  for  Vespers,  Terce, 
and  None  (probably  also  the  hymn  for  Sext)  are  his. 
We  have  additional  evidence,  belonging  to  the  West, 
relating  to  the  celebration  of  the  divine  office  at  this 
date.  Thus  St.  Jerome  furnishes  many  details  con- 
cerning the  liturgical  forms  of  his  time,  especially 
in  his  letters  and  tracts  against  the  heretics.     When 

1  See  Dictionnaire  d?  Archeologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie, 
under  the  words  Arie7is,  2816  ;  Antioche  (Liturgie  (?),  2430; 
A?itie?ine,  Liturgie,  2284  ;  Paleographie  musicale,  vol.  vi.,  intro- 
duction, pp.  18-19. 

2  Dictionnaire  d'Archeologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie, 
art.  Ambroise  hynmographe,  i.  1347. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  35 

writing  against  Vigilantius  he  had  to  take  up  the 
defence  of  Vigils.  He  expressly  enjoins  the  noble 
and  pious  matron  Laeta  to  take  her  daughter  with 
her  when  she  goes  to  church  at  night  or  in  the  evening, 
to  assist  at  solemn  Vigils.  He  mentions  the  morning 
prayer,  and  that  of  the  third,  sixth,  and  ninth  hours, 
at  which  the  young  girl  should  assist  like  a  soldier 
of  Christ,  and  finally  he  speaks  of  the  "sacrifice" 
of  Vespers.  His  letters  to  Eustochium,  Rusticus  and 
Demetrius  contain  allusions  to  an  Ordo  Psalmorum 
et  Orationum,  and  to  the  canonical  hours  known  to 
all,  at  which  Christians  of  both  sexes  do  not  fail  to 
pray.  There  are  the  nocturnal  prayer  (Vigils), 
morning  prayer  (Lauds),  Terce,  Sext,  None,  and 
Vespers.1 

(D)  St.  Augustine  is  also  an  unexceptionable  witness 
to  the  existence  of  the  different  hours  of  prayer  in 
the  West  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.  He 
shows,  moreover,  that  as  yet  there  was  no  one  uniform 
regulation  in  the  Latin  church  as  to  the  rite  to  be 
followed,  and  that  the  bishop  of  each  diocese,  or  the 
metropolitans  in  conjunction  with  their  suffragans, 
were  left  very  free  to  establish  and  regulate  the 
divine  office.  Provided  they  observed  certain  points 
of  apostolic  tradition,  they  might  conform  to  the 
requirements  ot  time,  place,  and  persons.  In  his 
Confessions  (bk.  v.  ch.  9),  St.  Augustine  tells  how 
his  pious  mother  St.  Monica  went  to  church  twice 
1  St.  Jerome,  Pair.  Lat.>  xxii.  909,  etc.,  xxiii.  347. 


36  The  Roman  Breviary 

a  day  to  hear  the  word  of  God  and  say  her 
prayers.  In  his  great  work  The  City  of  God  (bk. 
xxii.  ch.  8),  he  speaks  of  Vespers  as  if  it  were 
a  daily  service,  and  gives  us  to  understand  that  at 
it  prayers  were  recited,  and  hymns  and  psalms 
sung.1 

(E)  It  is  more  difficult  to  say  what  was  the  practice 
followed  at  Rome  with  regard  to  the  divine  office. 
The  traditional  ascription  of  the  distribution  of  the 
psalms,  such  as  it  is  in  the  Roman  Breviary,  to  Pope 
St.  Damasus  (366-384),  has  been  called  in  question. 
Still  there  is  a  constant  tradition  that  St.  Damasus 
did  promulgate  liturgical  regulations,  which  probably 
is  to  be  taken  as  referring  to  the  canonical  hours  as 
well  as  to  other  parts  of  the  liturgy.  St.  Jerome 
shows  that  in  380  and  390  several  canonical  hours 
existed  in  Rome.  As  early  as  383  St.  Damasus  had 
introduced  a  revised  psalter  for  liturgical  use  in 
Rome,  since  known  as  the  Psalterium  Romanum. 
It  was  also  during  his  pontificate  that  antiphonal 
chanting  established  itself  in  Rome.  In  fact,  the 
united  force  of  all  these  indications  proves  that,  at 
any  rate,  it  is  not  rash  to  conclude  that  St.  Damasus 
regulated  the  Roman  liturgy,  as  St.  Ambrose  had 
done  for  Milan.2 

Mgr.  Duchesne3  enables  us  to  deduce  a  posteriori 

1  Patr.  Lat.,  xxxii.  714,  xli.  765. 

2  Dom  Baumer,  i.  pp.  199-205. 

3  Origines  du  Cutte  Chretien,  p.  83. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  37 

the  existence  of  a  Roman  use,  when  he  says  that  the 
Roman  liturgy  was  employed  in  Africa.  We  shall 
soon  be  able  to  establish  another  indirect  proof  to  the 
same  effect  from  the  rules  of  St.  Benedict. 

(2)  During  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  we  do  not 
find  in  the  West  any  work  dealing  with  the  divine 
office  as  a  whole.  Such  an  undertaking  would  have 
been  difficult  owing  to  the  lack  of  material,  for  the 
Apostolic  See  had  not  yet  given,  its  imprimatur  to 
an  ordo  which  the  bishops  could  modify,  as  we  have 
said,  according  to  the  requirements  of  time,  place, 
and  people.  There  was  no  one  codex  then,  such  as 
there  is  now,  containing  the  prayers  and  chants,  to 
which  recourse  could  be  made.  We  must  thus  fall 
back  upon  the  method  we  have  heretofore  followed,  and 
seek  out  the  scattered  references  in  the  Fathers  and 
ecclesiastical  writers  of  the  time,  in  the  decrees  of 
councils  or  emperors,  in  the  liturgical  usages  of  Gaul 
and  Italy  given  from  time  to  time  by  Cassian,  and 
in  monastic  statutes. 

(A)  The  Fathers  and  Ecclesiastical  Writers:  — 
According  to  the  Life  of  St.  Melania  the  Younger, 
there  were  only  six  canonical  hours  —  Nocturns, 
Matins,  Terce,  Sext,  None,  and  Lucernare  (Vespers). 
Prime,  introduced  according  to  Cassian  about  400, 
seems  still  confined  to  the  monasteries.  There  is  no 
mention  of  Compline.  We  learn  nothing  additional 
from  the  writings  of  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  Faustus  of 
Riez,  and  Gennadius. 


38  The  Roman  Breviary 

(B)  Conciliar  decrees  of  this  period  {i.e.  Agde, 
506  ;  Tarragona,  516;  Epaone,  517;  Agaune,  between 
515  and  523;  Orleans,  541;  Tours,  567)  show  the 
attempts  made  to  introduce  unity  into  the  liturgy 
by  conforming  it  to  the  usages  of  both  the  East  and 
Rome  (there  must  then  have  been  Roman  usages  in 
existence  at  that  period). 

An  important  decree  of  the  Emperor  Justinian,  of 
about  530,  ordains  that  throughout  East  and  West, 
in  every  church  to  which  is  attached  a  body  of  clergy, 
the  nocturnal  office — Lauds  and  Vespers — shall  be 
solemnly  recited  day  by  day.  On  the  other  hand, 
Grancolas  and  Thomassin  endeavour  to  prove  that 
at  this  date  priests  and  those  in  the  lower  ranks 
of  the  clergy  were  already  bound  to  the  private 
recitation  of  the  office  when  prevented  from  assist- 
ing at  the  solemn  celebration  in  the  church.  They 
were  dispensed  from  the  lections,  as  it  was  impossible 
to  carry  about  the  great  MSS.  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures or  the  homilies  of  the  Fathers,  while  psalms, 
hymns,  and  the  shorter  prayers  could  be  recited 
by  heart. 

(C)  Cassian,  to  whom  we  owe  our  information 
concerning  the  monastic  office  in  the  East,  throw's 
light  also  on  the  development  followed  by  the  office 
in  the  West.  The  monks,  following  the  Eastern 
usage,  recited  a  prayer  after  each  psalm.  In  Gaul 
this  was  accompanied  by  a  prostration,  and  many 
more  psalms  were  recited  than  in  Egypt.     The  psalm 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  39 

was  sung  as  a  solo,  the  assistants  singing  only  the 
Gloria  Patri  at  the  end.  The  night  office  or  Nocturns 
was  recited  daily.  Matins  did  not  follow  immedi- 
ately. Cassian  constantly  affirms  the  existence  in 
the  West  of  Matins  (meaning  Nocturns),  Lauds, 
Prime,  Terce,  Sext,  None,  and  Vespers,  at  least 
in  the  monasteries.  This  was  the  general  custom. 
In  the  prefaces  affixed  to  his  books  De  Insti- 
tutions Ccenobiorum  and  his  Conferences,  Cassian 
shows  how  Egyptian  customs  were  making  their 
way  in  Gaul,  where  they  became  popular,  and  soon 
spread.1 

(D)  Monastic  Statutes. — (a)  St.  Caesarius  of  Aries 
(f  542),  who  had  been  a  monk  at  Lerins,  is  our  in- 
formant concerning  the  development  of  the  monastic 
office  and  that  of  the  secular  clergy  in  the  fifth  and 
sixth  centuries.  He  shows  that,  as  far  as  the  monks 
were  concerned,  the  burden  of  the  divine  office  had 
become  immensely  increased  by  a  quantity  of  psalms, 
lections,  and  prayers  added  to  the  different  hours 
already  mentioned.  From  the  Life  and  Sermons  of 
St.  Caesarius,  it  appears  also  that  the  observance  of 
the  canonical  hours  had  become  common  among  the 
secular  clergy,  and  was  popular  with  the  laity.  He 
himself  appointed  that  in  the  church  of  St.  Stephen 
at  Aries  the  offices  of  Terce,  Sext,  and  None  should 
be  celebrated  solemnly  every  day,  so  that  the  peni- 
tents and  other  lay-folk  could  assist  at  them,  while 
1  Cassian,  De  Instit.  Ccenob.  Pair.  Lat.,  xlix.  132. 


40  The  Roman  Breviary 

Prime  was  to  be  celebrated  only  on  Sundays,  festivals, 
and  Saturdays. 

(b)  We  learn  some  further  details  from  St.  Gregory 
of  Tours.  His  book  De  Cursu  Stellarum,  recently 
discovered,  shows  us  that  the  hour  for  the  com- 
mencement of  the  night  office  at  the  different 
seasons  of  the  year  and  the  number  of  psalms  the 
office  was  to  contain  was  calculated  by  certain  stars 
and  constellations.  Thus  great  freedom  was  used 
in  the  celebration  of  Vigils,  only  the  minimum 
number  of  psalms  and  lections  being  set  down. 
This  writer  gives  no  further  details  concerning  the 
composition  of  the  night  office  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  celebrated.  From  his  other  writings 
it  appears  that  during  the  fifth  century,  on  days 
when  there  were  no  nocturnal  Vigils,  the  people 
assembled  in  the  morning  for  Lauds,  the  essential 
parts  of  which  in  Gaul,  as  in  Italy  during  the 
time  of  Cassian,  were  the  Miserere,  Benedicite, 
and  the  three  concluding  psalms  of  the  psalter. 
No  mention  is  made  of  Prime  or  None,  and  the 
allusions  to  Vespers  are  rare.  This  latter  is  re- 
ferred to  as  a  night  office,  because  performed  in  the 
first  watch.1 

(c)  The  Development  of  the  Office  by  the  Monks  of 
the  West: — In  concluding  this  period  of  the  history 
of  the  Breviary,  we  must  draw  attention  to  two  dis- 

1  For  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  see  more  in  detail  Dom 
Baumer,  i.  pp.  206-233. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  41 

tinct  tendencies  equally  plainly  discernible  among 
the  monks  of  both  the  East  {i.e.  Egypt,  Palestine, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Syria)  and  the  West.  These  two 
tendencies  find  their  expression  both  in  the  ritual 
usages  and  in  the  number  of  psalms,  prayers,  and 
lections  recited  in  the  office.  Cassian  recognized 
that  the  austerities  of  the  Egyptians  needed  to  be 
mitigated  in  order  to  suit  the  constitution  of  Westerns  ; 
and  while  the  Irish  monks,  through  their  asceticism 
and  mysticism,  approached  more  nearly  to  the 
austerity  of  the  Egyptians,  Italy  and  Rome  were 
more  inclined  to  draw  their  inspiration  from  Palestine. 
Thus  a  double  stream  of  tendency  became  manifest 
in  the  West  during  the  sixth  century — the  chief 
representatives  of  the  two  schools  of  monasticism 
being  St.  Columban  and  St.  Benedict.  The  former 
enjoins  that  u  for  the  nocturnal  office  twelve  psalms 
are  to  be  chanted  during  the  short  nights  of  summer, 
but  more  as  the  nights  grow  longer ;  on  Saturdays 
and  Sundays  eighteen  psalms  at  least  are  to  be  sung, 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  thirty-six.  In  winter, 
on  week-days,  thirty-six  at  Vigils,  and  sixty-five  at 
the  iravwxLa  on  Saturday  and  Sunday."1  The 
arrangement  of  the  office,  or  Psalterium  per  hebdo- 
madamy  adopted  by  St.  Benedict  from  the  practices 
of  the  churches  of  Rome,  Milan,  and  other  parts  of 
Italy,  is  inspired  by  five  principles,  which  we  give  in 
brief  from  Dom  Baumer  {Hist,  du  Brev.  rom.,  i.  pp. 
1  Regula  S.  Columbani,  ch.  vii.,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxx.  212. 


42  The  Roman  Breviary 

243-245) :  (a)  The  entire  psalter  was  to  be  recited  at 
least  once  in  the  course  of  the  week,  i.e.  a  hundred 
and  fifty  psalms,  with  antiphons  and  prayers  to 
correspond,  and  the  scriptural  canticles  which  were 
wont  to  form  part  of  the  office.  (8)  In  the  night 
office  the  sacred  number  of  twelve  psalms  in  a  nocturn 
must  be  neither  increased  nor  diminished  (not  count- 
ing the  introductory  and  concluding  prayers  —  i.e. 
psalms  3,  94,  50,  and  the  canticles).  In  the  same 
way,  twelve  psalms  formed  the  day  office,  three  in 
each  of  the  hours,  (y)  In  order  to  leave  sufficient 
time  for  manual  labour,  short  psalms  or  sections  of 
psalms  (such  as  the  sections  into  which  psalm  118 
is  divided)  were  to  be  chosen  for  the  day  office.  In 
summer  the  long  lections  at  Matins  which  came 
after  midnight  were  suppressed  "  propter  brevitatem 
noctium."  On  Sundays  and  festivals,  when  there  was 
no  manual  labour,  the  whole  office  was  recited  with 
the  long  lessons.  (8)  A  reasonable  discretion  was 
always  to  be  observed.  There  was  to  be  no  long 
office  in  the  evening,  (e)  Each  hour  was  to  be  com- 
plete in  itself,  properly  drawn  up  and  uniform,  and 
on  this  account  long  psalms  are  to  be  divided  into 
two  equal  parts  by  a  Gloria  Patri\  the  11 8th 
psalm  is  to  be  divided  into  twenty-two  sections, 
each  containing  eight  verses,  and  the  116th,  "quia 
parvus  est,"  is  to  be  united  to  the  115th  under  one 
Gloria  Patri. 

For    the   rest,  when   the  object  and   rules   of    his 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  43 

order  did  not  require  the  abandonment  of  existing 
usages,  St.  Benedict  constantly  kept  the  Roman 
office  in  view,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  we 
must  understand  not  only  the  words  Sicut  psallit 
Ecclesia  Romana  in  the  13th  chapter  of  his  rule, 
but  many  other  directions  which  he  has  given  for 
the  office. 

In  St.  Benedict's  rule  we  have  the  oldest  and 
most  complete  scheme  of  the  canonical  hours  to 
be  found  in  the  history  of  the  church,  and  we 
may  well  think  that,  as  he  drew  it  up  in  Central 
Italy  and  not  far  from  Rome,  he  followed,  at  least 
substantially,  the  already  existing  usage  familiar 
to  himself  and  to  the  people  of  the  surrounding 
country. 

One  thing  is  certain.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
eighth  century  a  contemporary  witness,  in  a  treatise 
on  the  different  arrangements  of  the  office  at  that 
date,  states  that  the  "  cursus  "  of  St.  Benedict  bore 
a  very  strong  resemblance  to  the  Roman  "cursus."1 
The  latter,  then,  was  in  existence,  and  so  we  have 
an  additional  though  indirect  proof  in  favour  of  the 
assertion  made  above. 

IV.  Outline  of  the  Evidence  furnished  by  the  First 
Period: — 1.  The  festivals  of  our  Blessed  Lord  were 
Christmas,  Epiphany,  Easter,  and  Pentecost.  The 
Ascension  is  not  distinctly  named  by  St.  Paulinus 
in  the  fourth  century.  It  is  only  somewhat  later 
1  Dom  Baumer,  i.  pp.  261-262. 


44  The  Roman  Breviary 

that  the  earliest  evidence  for  the  existence  of  an 
office  for  this  festival  is  forthcoming.  The  Pere- 
grinatio  Silvia  speaks  indeed  of  the  fortieth  day 
after  Easter  as  having  its  Vigil  on  the  Wednesday. 
But  it  is  curious  that,  according  to  this  document, 
these  Vigils  were  celebrated  in  the  church  of  the 
Nativity  at  Bethlehem,  although  there  was  a  church 
erected  on  the  very  site  of  the  Ascension,  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives  quite  close  to  Jerusalem.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Peregrinatio  gives  us  to  under- 
stand that  the  mystery  of  the  Ascension  was  cele- 
brated in  Jerusalem  on  the  same  day  as  Pentecost. 
The  most  suitable  date  to  which  we  may  assign 
this  festival  is  probably  the  first  quarter  of  the 
fourth  century,  for  its  celebration  did  not  strike 
Sylvia  {i.e.  Etheria)  as  a  novelty  in  380,  and  it 
was  just  at  the  epoch  we  have  mentioned  that 
churches  were  built  in  Jerusalem,  and  that  the  pil- 
grimage to  the  Holy  Places  commenced.  Indeed, 
according  to  one  well-founded  interpretation,  the 
Council  of  Elvira  in  300  affords  evidence  of  the 
celebration  of  a  festival  on  the  fortieth  day  after 
Easter.  At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  fourth 
century  the  Ascension  ranked  as  one  of  the  great 
festivals  of  our  Lord.1 

2.  The   ecclesiastical   year   comprised   thirty-three 

1  Dictionnaire  d  Archeologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie ; 
Ascension.  Dom  Cabrol,  Etude  sur  la  Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvia, 
pp.  122-123. 


The  Post-Nicene  Epoch  45 

festivals,  fairly  generally  observed  (see  the  table  in 
Dom  Baumer,  i.  p.  272),  and  a  certain  number  of 
local  festivals  as  well. 

3.  The  development  of  the  canonical  office  was 
strongly  influenced  by  the  usages  of  the  East.  This 
influence  is  traceable  to  a  double  tradition  coming 
from  Egypt  and  Palestine. 

The  night  office  ( Vigilice),  at  first  an  occasional 
office  in  the  primitive  church,  and  monastic  in  its 
character,  obtained,,  after  the  edict  of  Justinian,  a 
place  alongside  the  ancient  and  venerable  offices  of 
Matins  (our  Lauds)  and  Vespers — the  morning  and 
evening  prayer.  Not  only  was  the  night  office 
adopted  by  all  the  clergy,  and  even  by  the  Christian 
laity,  but  the  day  hours  became  to  a  great  extent 
a  recognized  element  in  the  public  services.  In 
cathedrals,  where  there  were  no  canons  and  where 
the  clergy  were  occupied  with  ministering  to  souls, 
monks  and  clerics  from  the  different  monasteries  and 
churches  of  the  diocese  were  pressed  into  the  service, 
in  order  that  the  celebration  of  the  divine  office 
might  not  be  interrupted. 

St.  Benedict's  rule  brings  before  us  a  fresh  change 
in  the  monastic  office.  The  ancient  office  is  cur- 
tailed, certain  features  are  adapted  from  the  exist- 
ing Roman  use,  and  the  whole  is  arranged  with 
respect  to  the  requirements  of  the  cloister.  In  this 
way  it  rendered  the  canonical  "pensum"  a  sweet 
yoke   and    light  burden,   and   so   commended    it   to 


46  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  adoption  of  all  the  secular  clergy  of  the  West. 
One  may,  in  a  certain  sense,  call  St.  Benedict 
the  creator  of  the  Breviary  of  the  West,  as  he 
has  been  called  the  patriarch  of  the  monks  of 
the  West. 


Part  II 
THE    MIDDLE    AGES 

The  Middle  Ages,  in  the  sense  the  term  is  employed 
here,  include  about  ten  centuries  (590-1538),  during 
which  (1)  the  Roman  office  was  first  developed  under 
the  influence  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  whose  name 
is  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  history  of  the 
liturgy.  This  office,  in  the  centuries  after  Charle- 
magne, was  spread  throughout  the  different  countries 
of  the  West  by  monastic  missionaries,  and  at  the 
same  time  gradually  developed  into  the  office  such 
as  we  have  it  now.  (2)  In  the  interval  between 
Charlemagne  and  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
certain  alterations  were  made  through  Carolingian 
influence  in  the  Responsory  and  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  lections,  and  new  festivals  were  added  to  the 
calendar.  St.  Gregory  VII.  desired  to  guard  the 
Roman  rite  against  the  excessive  influence  of  the 
Germanic  peoples,  and  did  what  in  him  lay  to  restore 
the  ancient  Roman  office.  A  little  later,  the  papal 
chapel  or  curia,  which  followed  the  pontiff  when  he 

was  more  or  less  forced  to  reside  at  a  distance  from 

47 


48  The  Roman  Breviary 

Rome,  began  to  exert  an  influence  which  gradually 
became  the  chief  factor  in  the  modification  of  the 
canonical  hours.  In  estimating  this  influence,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  at  this  date  the  office 
was  recited  exclusively  in  choir  within  the  walls  of 
the  churches.  The  Franciscans,  however,  on  account 
of  their  many  occupations,  found  themselves  obliged 
to  recite  their  office  privately.  This  led  them  to  adopt 
the  abbreviations  introduced  by  the  Roman  curia  or 
papal  chapel,  and  so  the  Breviary  of  the  curia  came 
much  into  evidence  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries ;  the  lections  were  curtailed,  and  the 
festivals  were  increased,  to  the  detriment  of  the  ferial 
office.  (3)  The  great  schism  of  the  West  put  the 
finishing  touches  to  this  disorganization  of  the  ancient 
office,  which  had  reached  such  a  pitch  that  no  one 
really  knew  what  was  the  true  rule  to  follow  in  the 
recitation  of  the  hours;  the  years  preceding  the 
Council  of  Trent  were  marked  by  attempts  at  reform 
of  which  the  most  remarkable  and  important  was 
that  of  Cardinal  Quignonez.  The  second  stage  of 
our  history  of  the  Breviary  terminates  with  this  period 
of  confusion  ;  it  is  composed  of  three  chapters. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  FORMATION    OF   THE   BREVIARY   IN    ITS 
EARLY   STAGES 

From  St.  Gregory  to  Charlemagne,  591-814 

Section  i—  St.  Gregory  the  Great 

1.  The  Roman  Office  at  the  Accession  of  St.  Gregory 
the  Great. — This  office,  as  we  have  said,  was  already 
in  existence,  and  our  object  in  turning  our  atten- 
tion to  it  once  more  is  that  we  may  the  better 
appreciate  St.  Gregory's  influence  on  the  liturgy, 
and  on  the  arrangement  of  the  canonical  hours  in 
particular.  Several  popes  before  him,  especially  St. 
Damasus,  had  expended  some  labour  upon  it,  and  so 
it  is  not  without  reason  that  St.  Benedict,  in  his  rule, 
speaks  of  the  component  parts  of  the  office — the 
antiphons,  responds,  hymns — as  well  known  at  the 
time  he  wrote.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century  there  existed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome 
all  the  elements  of  a  Liber  antiphonalis  and  a  Liber 
responsoralis.    We  must  not  exaggerate.    "St.  Gregory 

did  not  create  the  Roman  office.     Many  popes  had 

49  4 


50  The  Roman  Breviary 

contributed  towards  its  formation.  In  the  seventh 
century  it  was  possible  to  place  its  composition  as  a 
whole,  as  a  divine  office,  at  as  early  a  date  as  one 
pleased." 1  As  has  been  seen  in  the  first  part  of  this 
little  book,  it  is  difficult  to  determine  with  exactness 
the  origin  of  those  elements  in  the  Roman  church 
which  St.  Gregory  arranged  in  better  order.  Speak- 
ing broadly,  we  can  endorse  what  Dom  Gueranger 
says  of  St.  Gregory's  Antiphonary :  "  The  ecclesi- 
astical chant  resembles  all  other  great  institutions 
inasmuch  as  the  first  time  we  come  across  them  in 
the  records  of  tradition  they  appear  as  already 
existing,  and  their  origin  as  lost  in  an  impenetrable 
antiquity."2 

2.  What  did  St.  Gregory  achieve  in  regard  to  the 
Office? — In  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  possess  no  MS. 
of  the  Gregorian  Liturgy  belonging  to  the  period  of 
St.  Gregory,  nor  even  to  the  following  century,  we 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  with  Dom  Leveque, 
Dom  G.  Morin,  and  many  others,  that  St.  Gregory 
"  collected,  re-arranged  in  better  order,  completed 
more  perfectly,  and,  above  all,  gave  definite  form 
to  the  chants,  more  or  less  ancient,  of  the  Roman 
liturgy."3 

1  Dom  Leveque  in  the  Revue  des  questions  historiques,  vol.  lvi. 
p.  235,  1894,  in  answer  to  M.  Batiffol  on  the  origin  of  the  Liber 
responsoralis. 

2  Institutions  liturgiques,  i.  p.  163.  Cf.  what  is  said  above 
(p.  32)  of  the  Antiphon. 

3  Dom  Leveque,  Revue  des  questions  historiques^  toe.  cit. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   51 

This  is  specially  true  of  the  Gregorian  Antiphonary. 
Dom  Morin l  thinks  that  the  part  taken  by  St. 
Gregory  is  strictly  defined  in  the  following  words: 
"  Ipse  patrum  monumenta  sequens  renovavit  et  auxit." 
He  took  as  a  basis  of  his  work  the  compositions  of 
his  predecessors,  re-arranged  them,  and  completed 
them  by  new  additions.  In  spite  of  what  may  be 
said  to  the  contrary,  there  is  no  lack  of  texts  in 
support  of  this  statement.  Dom  Leclercq  (art, 
Antiphonaire  in  the  Dictionnaire  cTArcheologie,  vol.  i, 
2453  et  sqq.)  gives  these  texts  after  Dom  Morin  {Revue 
Benedictine  for  1 890),  and  by  them  we  mount  up  not 
only  to  the  end  of  the  eighth  and  beginning  of  the 
ninth  centuries,  from  which  dates  an  interesting  treat- 
ise edited  by  Gerbert,  but  even  to  the  first  half  of  the 
eighth  century,  when  we  meet  with  a  prologue  in  verse 
which  Pope  Adrian  I.  (772-795)  placed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Antiphonary,  and  which  is  not  applicable 
to  any  other  pope  of  the  name  of  Gregory.  We  have 
also  the  testimony  of  Egbert  of  York,  who  claimed 
to  follow  "  the  authority  of  our  teacher  St.  Gregory, 
who  has  thus  ordained  in  the  copies  of  his  Anti- 
phonary and  Missal  brought  to  us  by  our  master 
the  blessed  Augustine."  Finally,  Dom  Leclercq  con- 
cludes {ib.  2461),  there  is  one  text  hitherto  ignored 
which  must  not  be  passed  over  in  the  controversy 
concerning  the  Gregorian  Antiphonary.     In  732,  the 

1  Quoted  in  the  Dictionnaire  d* Archeologie  chretienne  et  de 
Liturgie,  under  the  word  A7itipho?iaire,  vol.  i.  2458. 


52  The  Roman  Breviary 

date  to  which  the  evidence  of  Egbert  of  York  extends, 
Acca,  Bishop  of  Hexham,  was  forced  to  abandon 
his  diocese,  over  which  he  had  ruled  since  709. 
The  Venerable  Bede,  whose  friendship  with  Acca 
dates  apparently  from  this  period,  tells  us  that 
Acca  had  acquired  his  knowledge  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical chant  from  a  certain  Maban,  who  had  himself 
been  taught  by  the  successors  of  the  disciples  of 
the  blessed  Pope  Gregory,  at  a  time  when  Maban 
resided  in  Kent.  According  to  Bede,  these  lessons 
began  in  720,  and  the  chant  taught  by  Maban  was 
merely  a  reform  of  that  existing  chant  which  had 
become  corrupt  through  long  usage.  The  same 
historian,  speaking  of  Putta,  Bishop  of  Rochester 
(669-676),  declares :  "  Maxime  autem  modulandi  in 
ecclesia  more  Romanorum,  quern  a  discipulis  beati 
papae  Gregorii  didicerat  peritum."  Bede  can  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  having  passed  over  in  silence 
the  work  of  St.  Gregory  I.,  for  he  fully  recognises 
its  existence,  and  thus  the  interval  between  604  and 
732  is  reduced  by  half. 

In  considering  the  internal  evidence,  we  must 
always  remember  that  our  oldest  MSS.  are  two 
centuries  later  than  St.  Gregory's  time.  Still  we  may 
draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  text  of  the  chants 
in  the  Antiphonary  is  taken  from  the  "  Itala  "  version 
of  the  Scriptures.  This  translation  was  already  losing 
ground  in  St.  Gregory's  time,  and  was  almost  entirely 
abandoned  after  his  death.     The  Antiphonary,  then, 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages  53 

was  not  composed  in  the  centuries  following.1  We 
repeat,  with  Dom  Baumer  (vol.  i.  pp.  299-300),  that 
the  fifth  century,  at  Rome  as  elsewhere,  was  a  period 
of  great  liturgical  activity,  while  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries  were,  viewed  from  this  point  of  view, 
a  period  of  decline.  The  prayers  of  our  liturgy  are 
for  the  most  part  very  striking  and  fine  compositions, 
and  so  it  is  more  probable  to  ascribe  their  origin  to 
the  fifth  century,  and  to  grant  that  St.  Gregory  com- 
pleted and  retouched  them,  and  arranged  them  in 
better  order.  This  would  explain  the  existence  of 
a  Gregorian  tradition  which  appears  towards  the  end 
of  the  seventh  century  and  in  the  subsequent  period. 
"  Everything,"  says  Mgr.  Duchesne,2  "  was  modelled  on 
the  Gregorian  tradition.  This  did  not  certainly  pre- 
vent the  introduction  of  necessary  modifications,  but, 
even  when  anything  was  altered,  it  was  still  the  usage 
of  St.  Gregory  which  people  thought  they  were 
following." 

Dom  Baumer  thus  describes  St.  Gregory's  labours 
in  the  domain  of  liturgy:3  "  It  is  he  who  collected 
together  the  prayers  and  liturgical  usages  of  his  pre- 
decessors, and  assigned  to  each  its  proper  place,  and 
thus  the  liturgy  owes  its  present  form  to  him.  The 
liturgical  chant  also  bears  his  name,  because  it  was 

1  Dom  Leclercq,  Dictionnaire  & Archeologie  chretiewie  et 
de  Liturgie,  art.  A?itipho?iaii'e,  i.  2458-2459. 

2  Origines  du  Culte  chretien,  p.  122  (2nd  ed.),  a  propos  of  the 
Gelasian  Sacramentary. 

3  Histoire  du  Breviaire  ro?n.,  vol.  i.  pp.  289,  301-303. 


54  The  Roman  Breviary 

through  his  means  that  it  reached  its  highest  state  of 
development.  The  canonical  hours  and  the  formulary 
of  the  Mass  now  in  use  were  also  carefully  arranged 
by  him."  Further  on,  Dom  Baumer  admits  that 
there  are  difficulties  in  determining  the  extent  of 
St  Gregory's  work,  but  maintains  that  the  study  of 
the  sources  of  the  Cantatorium,  of  the  Antiphonary, 
and  of  the  Responsory  is  closely  connected  with  the 
study  of  the  Sacramentary  of  the  Antiphonary  and 
Responsory,  and  that  the  following  points  can  be 
proved :  (i.)  the  probability  of  a  codification  of  the 
Antiphonary  and  Responsory,  as  well  as  of  the  Sacra- 
mentary, previous  to  St.  Gregory's  time ;  (ii.)  the  care 
taken  by  St.  Gregory  with  regard  to  the  books  used 
in  the  schola  which  he  founded ;  (iii.)  the  impress  of 
his  own  character  which  St.  Gregory  gave  to  these 
books  by  means  of  the  revision  and  simplification  to 
which  he  subjected  them ;  (iv.)  the  care  taken  by  him 
to  keep  up  the  obligation  of  the  daily  Vigils,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  shortened  the  office  in  order  to 
make  it  easier  for  the  clergy ;  (v.)  the  development  of 
the  Roman  chant  in  the  seventh  century,  which 
cannot  be  better  explained  than  by  the  fact  that 
St.  Gregory  founded  a  Schola  Cantorum.  There 
may  be  difficulties  in  establishing  the  precise  part 
taken  by  St.  Gregory  in  the  modification  and  codifica- 
tion of  the  music  books  of  the  Roman  office,  "  but 
the  whole  history  of  the  Western  liturgy  supports  us 
in  maintaining   that   these   books  received  from  the 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   55 

great  pope,  or  from  one  of  his  contemporaries,  a  form 
which  never  afterwards  underwent  any  radical  or 
essential  alteration." 

Section  2. — Diffusion  of  the  Roman  Office 
after  the  time  of  st.  gregory  the  great 

i.  The  development  of  the  Roman  liturgy  seemed 
to  come  to  an  end,  at  least  provisionally,  with  St. 
Gregory  the  Great,  by  the  codification  of  the  texts 
and  the  formation  of  a  system  of  ecclesiastical  chant 
for  both  the  canonical  hours  and  the  Mass.  The 
successors  of  St.  Gregory  encouraged  the  solemn 
celebration  of  divine  service  in  Rome  by  the  founda- 
tion of  numerous  monasteries  attached  to  the  chief 
basilicas,  the  monks  of  which  were  enjoined  to 
celebrate  the  divine  office  in  the  basilica  with  which 
their  monastery  was  connected  (Duchesne,  Origines 
du  Culte,  p.  437).  The  enthusiasm  of  the  numerous 
pilgrims  who  visited  Rome  and  witnessed  the 
magnificence  with  which  the  office  was  celebrated 
led  to  the  creation  of  similar  means  for  edification 
among  the  newly  converted  peoples.  Then  again, 
the  monasteries  founded  by  missionaries  in  Germany, 
Flanders,  and  Great  Britain  were  schools  of  the 
Romano-Gregorian  liturgy.  In  Rome,  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities,  and,  within  their  own  limits, 
the  members  of  the  Schola  and  of  the  monasteries, 
took  pains  to  preserve  St.  Gregory's  creations,  and  to 
maintain  and   still   further  develop  all  that  he  had 


56  The  Roman  Breviary 

restored.  The  anonymous  Frank  who  described  the 
Ordo  Romanus  in  the  eighth  century  in  codex  349  of 
the  library  of  St.  Gall,  states  that  first  of  all  Pope  St. 
Damasus,  with  the  assistance  of  St.  Jerome,  instituted 
and  regulated  the  ecclesiastical  ordo  of  Jerusalem.1 

2.  The  chant  of  the  Roman  Benedictines  took  root 
in  England  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  through  the 
zeal  of  St.  Benedict  Biscop  and  St.  Wilfrid.  In  668 
St.  Wilfrid,  delighted  with  the  fine  chants  used  at 
Canterbury,  obtained  thence  two  chanters,  Haedde 
and  iEona,  for  his  monastery  at  Ripon.  These  two 
chanters  had  been  trained  by  the  Roman  disciples 
of  St.  Gregory  in  all  branches  of  ecclesiastical 
knowledge  and  discipline.  Ten  years  later,  St. 
Benedict  Biscop,  on  the  occasion  of  his  fourth  voyage  to 
Rome,  obtained  leave  from  Pope  Agatho  to  take  back 
with  him  John,  arch-chanter  of  St.  Peter's  and  abbot 
of  St.  Martin's,  who  was  to  instruct  the  monks  of 
Wearmouth  in  ecclesiastical  chant.  This  he  did 
"  according  to  the  use  of  the  Roman  and  Apostolic 
Church."  Before  returning  to  Rome,  John  left  at 
Wearmouth  an  ordo  written  out  for  all  the  festivals 
of  the  entire  ecclesiastical  year.  We  learn  these 
details  from  the  Venerable  Bede  ("f"  735),  in  whose 
time  this  ordo  was  still  in  existence,  preserved  in 
the   library  of  the  monastery,  and    had  often  been 

1  Batiffol,  History  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  gives  some  frag- 
ments from  this  document.  See  p.  375  (Eng.  trans.)  for  the 
reference  to  St.  Damasus. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   57 

copied.  It  was  doubtless  the  same  chant  and  the 
same  ordo  which  Canterbury  had  received  about 
the  same  time  from  Theodore  and  Adrian,  who  had 
been  sent  from  Rome.  Seventy  years  later  (747), 
the  Council  of  Cloveshoe  decreed  that  in  the  principal 
festivals  of  the  year  the  chant  should  be  executed 
in  the  Roman  manner,  "Juxta  exemplar  quod 
scriptum  de  Romana  habemus  Ecclesia." 

The  Anglo-Saxon  church,  the  favourite  child  of 
St.  Gregory  the  Great  and  the  faithful  interpreter 
of  his  teaching,  was  soon  to  extend  his  spirit  and 
influence  to  Germany  and  the  Frankish  empire. 
But  as  early  as  716  St.  Gregory  II.  instructed  his 
legates  in  South  Germany  to  see  that  every  church 
had  the  necessary  ministers  for  the  celebration  of  the 
day  and  night  offices.  The  text  of  this  instruction 
shows  that  there  existed  in  the  Roman  church  an 
ancient  ordinance  respecting  the  Holy  Mass,  the  day 
and  night  office,  the  lections,  and  even  preaching.1 

3.  The  Frankish  Empire : — The  introduction  of  the 
Roman  psalmody  and  the  Roman  arrangement  of  the 
office  was  apparently  connected  with  the  influence 
exerted  over  the  Frankish  court  at  the  rise  of  the 
Carolingian  dynasty  by  the  English  missionaries, 
St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany,  in  particular. 
The  Frankish  court  soon  entered  into  close  relations 
with  the  Apostolic  See,  and  the  first  decided  step 
towards  the  introduction  of  the  Roman  chant  within 
1  See  the  text  in  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxxix.  332. 


58  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  empire  coincides  with  the  embassy  sent  to  Rome 
by  King  Pepin  in  October  753.  Chrodegang,  Bishop 
of  Metz,  the  chief  personage  in  this  embassy, 
immediately  on  his  return  from  Rome  imposed  on 
his  clergy  not  only  the  Roman  chant,  but,  to  some 
extent,  the  Roman  rite  as  well.  The  sojourn  of  Pope 
Stephen  north  of  the  Alps  seems  to  have  given  a 
new  impulse  to  the  adoption  of  Roman  customs,  as 
is  proved  from  the  Caroline  Books  written  shortly 
afterwards.  St.  Remedius  of  Rouen  received  a 
chanter  called  Simeon,  between  758  and  768,  who 
had  been  sent  from  Rome  to  instruct  the  monks  in  the 
Roman  chant.  Simeon  having  been  recalled  shortly 
afterwards,  Bishop  Remedius  made  choice  of  some 
monks,  and  asked  Pepin  to  send  them  to  Rome  with 
an  urgent  recommendation.  The  pope  received  the 
king's  petition,  and  placed  the  monks  under  Simeon's 
care  until  they  were  thoroughly  grounded  in  the 
Roman  chant  and  psalmody.  There  are  also  other 
traces  of  the  intimate  union  between  Rome  and  the 
regulation  of  the  Frankish  office.  About  787 
Charlemagne  states  that,  owing  to  the  care  and  zeal 
of  his  father,  Pepin,  the  Roman  chant  had  been 
established  in  all  the  churches  of  Gaul.  A  sweeping 
statement  like  this  may  require  some  qualifications; 
still  it  must  be  acknowledged  Charlemagne  was  a 
man  capable  of  carrying  through  an  undertaking  of 
this  kind  ;  that  he  did  so  is  stated  in  the  Caroline 
Books  written  under  his  direction  in  790.     "  We  have 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   59 

ordered,"  he  says,  "  that  all  the  churches  which  have 
so  far  refused  to  follow  the  tradition  of  the  Apostolic 
See  in  the  matter  of  chanting,  adopt  the  Roman 
usage  with  zeal."  We  find  references  to  the  same 
attempt  in  the  Capitularies. 

Among  the  liturgical  scholars  of  the  time  of 
Charlemagne,  Alcuin  must  not  be  passed  over.  If, 
as  everything  seems  to  show,  he  was  the  author  of  the 
recension  of  the  Gregorian  books  for  use  in  Gaul,  his 
influence  must  have  been  of  great  moment  in  all  that 
concerns  the  history  of  the  Roman  liturgy  and 
liturgical  books. 

"  It  is  affirmed,"  says  the  author  of  the  Micrologus, 
"  that  Alcuin  brought  together  in  the  Sacramentary 
the  prayers  of  St.  Gregory,  to  which  he  added  a  few 
new  prayers,  and  that  he  was  careful  to  mark  these 
by  an  obolus\  and  then  he  added  to  these  other 
prayers,  which,  although  they  did  not  come  from  St. 
Gregory,  were  nevertheless  necessary  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  divine  office." 

There  are  two  other  books  of  Alcuin  which, 
although  dealing  with  matters  of  private  devotion, 
enlighten  us  upon  the  history  of  the  liturgy  in 
general — the  De  Psalmorum  Usu  and  the  Officia  per 
Ferias.  In  the  former,  after  pointing  out  the  use  we 
ought  to  make  of  the  psalms,  he  gives  seventeen 
prayers  for  special  occasions,  and  in  the  second  he 
sets  down  a  certain  number  of  psalms,  prayers, 
versicles,  litanies,  and  hymns  for  each  day.     Among 


60  The  Roman  Breviary 

these  appear  numerous  fragments  of  more  ancient 
works. 

Thus,  in  the  reduction  of  the  liturgy  to  uniformity 
dreamed  of  by  Charlemagne,  Alcuin  was  the  chief 
agent,  and  it  was  he  who  hit  upon  the  principle 
through  which  unity  was  to  be  effected,  a  principle 
adopted  by  the  Church  of  Rome  herself.  The  Roman 
liturgy  returned  to  Rome  from  Gaul  arranged  and 
co-ordinated.1 

4.  Other  Countries : — (A)  A  document,  only  recently 
come  to  light,  gives  us  to  understand  that  towards 
the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  the  Gregorian 
liturgy  was,  with  a  few  exceptions,  generally 
followed  by  the  Latins  for  the  Mass  and  divine 
office.  This  is  a  letter  of  Pope  Leo  IV.  (847-855) 
to  an  abbot  Honoratus,  probably  of  Farfa  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Rome.  The  pontiff  complains  that 
the  abbot  showed  his  aversion  to  the  Gregorian  chant, 
and  to  the  manner  of  singing  and  reading  regulated 
and  taught  by  Gregory,  which  are  followed  by  the 
entire  Western  church.  Then  he  orders  the  abbot 
to  follow  the  ordo  arranged  by  St.  Gregory  and  not 
to  depart  therefrom  again  under  pain  of  excom- 
munication. 

(B)  The  church  of  Milan  claimed  the  right  of 
maintaining  her  privileges.  All  the  same,  just  as  her 
rite  was  derived  from  the  Roman  use  of  the  fourth  and 

1  Dictionnaire  d ' Archeologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie,  under 
the  word  Alcuin,  especially  the  conclusion,  vol.  i.  1090. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages  61 

fifth  centuries,  so  she  borrowed  largely  from  the  latter 
during  the  Middle  Ages. 

(C)  The  Mozarabic  Rite:  —  The  most  difficult 
questions  concerning  the  origin  of  the  liturgy  which 
enjoyed  the  most  widespread  acceptance  throughout 
the  Iberian  peninsula  in  the  seventh  century  are 
still  far  from  being  satisfactorily  answered.  It  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  Pope  Vigilius,  in  538, 
sent  a  copy  of  the  Ordinarium  Missce  to  Bishop 
Profuturus  of  Braga  and  from  the  acceptance  of  the 
papal  letter  at  the  Council  of  Braga  in  563,  that  the 
Roman  liturgy  was  used  in  the  catholic  parts  of 
Spain,  and  that  the  orthodox  bishops,  surrounded 
as  they  were  on  all  sides  by  Arian  intruders,  turned 
to  Rome  as  the  source  of  orthodoxy.  But  St. 
Leander  realized  the  necessity  of  organizing  the 
celebration  of  the  Holy  Mysteries  and  Canonical 
Hours  in  a  way  which  would  not  give  offence  to 
the  Goths  who  had  been  recently  converted  from 
Arianism,  and  whose  faith  was  still  feeble.  St. 
Isidore  of  Seville  gave  this  liturgy  its  definite  form. 
Afterwards,  additions  of  a  suspicious  character  were 
added,  and  that  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Council 
of  Frankfort  in  791  appealed  to  the  authority  of  the 
liturgical  books  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great  against 
the  Adoptionists,  who  sought  to  support  their  heresy 
by  quoting  the  prayers  of  the  Mozarabic  missal. 

Thus,  since  the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  the 
Roman  office  has  been   used    throughout  the  whole 


62  The  Roman  Breviary 

Latin  church,  the  exceptions  of  Milan    and  Toledo 
only  proving  the  rule. 

Section  3. — Development  of  the  Office  and 
Formation  of  the  Roman  Breviary 

First-hand  material  for  dealing  with  this  question 
will  apparently  be  wanting  for  some  time  to  come. 
So  long  as  MSS.  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries 
are  not  forthcoming,  we  must  rest  content  with  the 
imperfect  and  often  casual  notices  to  be  found  in  con- 
temporary writers,  and  with  the  state  in  which  we  find 
the  liturgy  at  a  later  date.  We  have  to  pass  in  review 
— I.,  the  structure  of  the  office  and  the  arrangement  of 
the  psalms  ;  II.,  the  lections  from  Holy  Scripture,  and 
the  selection  and  arrangement  of  the  other  lections  in 
the  office ;  III.,  the  arrangement  of  festivals  and  the 
liturgical  year. 

I.  The  Structure  of  the  Office  and  the 
Distribution  of  the  Psalms. 

(A)  The  Text  of  the  Psalter.  —  Walafrid  Strabo l 
(j-  849)  tells  us  that  in  his  time  there  was  no  one  text 
of  the  psalms  uniformly  adopted  everywhere. 

In  Rome  and  Italy  the  recension  of  the  Roman 
psalter  was  used,  of  which  we  have  a  relic  in  the 
version  of  the  Invitatory  (psalm  94)  still  in  use.  This 
was  the  psalter  belonging  to  the  Itala  version,  revised 
for  the  first  time  by  St.  Jerome,  and  introduced  into 
1  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  cxiv.  952. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages  63 

liturgical  use  by  St.  Damasus  towards  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  (383).  Its  use  spread  quickly  in  Italy 
and  Spain. 

In  Gaul,  owing  to  the  influence  of  Gregory  of  Tours 
in  the  sixth  century,  St.  Jerome's  second  revision  of 
the  psalter,  which  he  made  in  Palestine  in  392,  was 
generally  adopted.  This  version  is  more  independent 
of  the  Itala  than  the  former,  and  for  it  St.  Jerome  con- 
sulted the  Hexapla  of  Origen  preserved  at  Caesarea. 
This  was  the  Gallican  psalter  adopted  in  Germany, 
England,  and  even,  in  the  ninth  century,  in  Italy 
itself,  alongside  the  Roman  psalter.  This  divergence 
of  use  continued  until  the  Council  of  Trent,  after  which 
St.  Pius  V.  established  the  universal  use  of  the  Gallican 
psalter.  In  St.  Peter's  alone  the  ancient  psalter  still 
remains  in  use. 

(B)  The  Canonical  Hours : —  From  the  seventh 
century  onwards,  ecclesiastical  writers,  papal  decretals, 
and  conciliar  decrees  recognize  the  eight  parts  of  the 
office,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  took  shape  during  the 
sixth  century,  and  regard  their  recitation  by  priests 
and  monks  as  enjoined  by  positive  law.  During 
this  period,  or  at  least  at  its  commencement,  Lauds 
and  Vespers  alone  had  a  clearly  defined  structure  and 
followed  a  definite  arrangement.  As  far  as  we  can 
see,  St.  Gregory  arranged  the  little  hours  for  Sunday 
alone,  and  their  arrangement  for  week-days  was  left 
to  the  care  of  the  bishops  and  metropolitans,  or  even 
to  abbots.     This  was  also  the  case  in  many  instances 


64  The  Roman  Breviary 

with  regard  to  Matins,  for  the  number  of  psalms  to 
be  recited  thereat  was  not  definitely  fixed.  Ama- 
larius x  says  that  in  the  ninth  century  in  Rome  if  it 
was  observed  during  Matins  that  the  sun  was  about 
to  rise,  Vigils  or  Matins  were  at  once  brought  to  an 
end,  even  although  the  lections  and  psalms  had  not 
all  been  recited.  This  was  because  Lauds,  the  canoni- 
cally  established  morning  office,  must  begin  at  dawn. 
After  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  we  gather  from 
contemporary  documents  that  the  office  of  Vigils  was, 
as  a  whole,  regularly  constituted  and  well  known. 

As  regards  the  little  hours — Prime,  Terce,  Sext, 
None,  and  Compline — the  freedom  of  the  competent 
ecclesiastical  authorities  was  as  yet  unconfined  by 
canonical  restrictions.  Chrodegang  (1 766)  was  the 
first  to  follow  the  usages  of  the  Benedictines  of  the 
Roman  basilicas  in  prescribing  for  secular  clergy  the 
celebration  at  Prime  of  the  Officium  Capituli  {i.e.  the  re- 
union in  the  chapter  for  reading  the  rule,  or,  on  certain 
days,  the  writings  and  homilies  of  the  Fathers).  The 
rest  of  the  chapter,  i.e.  all  that  follows  the  Confiteor  in 
Prime  as  a  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  day,  seems 
to  have  been  composed  in  the  ninth  century.  A  relic 
of  the  custom  of  reading  a  sermon,  homily  or  section 
of  the  rule  in  the  chapter,  when  the  abbot  or  bishop 
was  himself  unable  to  address  the  assembly,  exists  in 
the  short  lection,  which  in  its  present  form  is  usually 

1  De  Or  dine  Antiphonarii^  cap.  iv.  Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  cv. 
1252. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   65 

the  chapter  from  None.  The  short  lection  at  the  be- 
ginning of  Compline  is  also  a  survival  of  the  reading 
(collatio)  prescribed  by  St.  Benedict  in  his  rule. 
Under  Charlemagne  and  his  successors,  variations  in 
the  canonical  hours  completely  disappeared. 

(C)  The  Distribution  of  the  Psalms  over  the  Days 
of  the  Week  : — The  following  division  of  the  Psalterium 
per  hebdomadam  was  adopted  by  Charlemagne  for 
his  chapel  royal  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  consequently 
by  all  the  churches  of  the  Frankish  empire,  which, 
according  to  the  capitulary  of  802,  were  bound  to 
follow  the  model  given  by  the  palace  chapel. 
From  the  work  of  Amalarius,  we  learn  that  this 
division,  except  in  a  few  points  connected  with 
Prime,  was  that  of  the  existing  Roman  Breviary,  in 
its  Psalterium  dispositum  per  hebdomadam.  This 
was  the  division  followed  at  Rome  also.  Later  on, 
after  the  simplification  of  the  office  for  use  in  the 
papal  chapel,  it  was  established  in  Paris,  from  whence 
it  was  adopted  into  the  Breviaries  of  the  Dominicans 
and  Carmelites.  In  the  documents  referred  to,  the 
psalms  and  canticles  for  Matins,  Lauds,  Vespers,  and 
Compline  are  the  same  as  those  at  the  present  day 
for  the  Sundays  and  ferias  throughout  the  year. 
The  "preces  feriales  "  joined  to  the  psalms  have  also 
remained  practically  unaltered  throughout  the  cen- 
turies. With  regard  to  Compline,  the  existing  Roman 
form  of  this  office  with  the  Nunc  Dimittis  dates  from 
the  eighth  century,  the  period  when  Chrodegang  drew 

5 


66  The  Roman  Breviary 

up  his  rules — unless  one  prefers  to  grant  that  St. 
Gregory  the  Great  himself  arranged  it  in  its  present 
form.1  Terce,  Sext,  and  None  were  the  same  as  at 
present,  but,  as  regards  Prime  the  Sunday  office 
differed  entirely  from  that  for  week-days.  For  the 
latter,  the  ancient  rules  allotted  only  three  psalms  : 
psalm  53,  Deus  in  nomine  tuo,  with  the  two  sections 
of  psalm  118,  verses  1-16  and  17-32.  On  Sunday 
nine  psalms  were  recited,  ie.  in  addition  to  those 
recited  at  the  present  day,  the  five  psalms  which  are 
said  one  on  each  day  from  Monday  to  Friday  in 
place  of  the  Confitemini — psalms  21-25.  These 
psalms  were  perhaps  said  in  St.  Gregory's  time  at 
Matins  on  Sunday,  which  would  then  have  had 
twenty-four  psalms.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
eighth  century  the  Quicumque  vult,  commonly  called 
the  Creed  of  St.  Athanasius,2  seems  to  have  been 
recited  at  Prime,  for  it  appears  in  the  Utrecht  psalter 
as  forming  part  of  the  canonical  office.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  eighth  century  St.  Boniface  ordered  it  to 
be  recited  daily,  or  at  least  weekly,  in  Germany.  On 
the  other  hand,  many  writers  bear  witness  that  it  was 
recited  at  Prime  on  Sundays  from  the  ninth  century. 
It   appears   from    this    distribution    of  psalms   that 

1  Amalarius,  De  Or  dine  Antiphonarii,  ch.  7.  Migne,  Patr. 
Lat.,  cv.  1259. 

2  Dom  Morin  has  shown  in  the  Science  Catholique  (15th  July 
1 891)  that  this  creed  dates  from  the  end  of  the  fifth  century. 
See  also  the  Dictionnaire  de  Theologie  catholique,  Vacant- 
Mangenot,  i.  2178. 


Formation  of  Breviary  iii  its  Early  Stages   67 

provision  was  made  for  festivals,  and  that  on  the 
most  of  them  there  was  a  double  office.  On  the 
whole,  this  distribution  of  psalms  agrees  with  that  of 
Mabillon's  first  Ordo  Romanus,  and  with  those 
published  by  Martene  and  Muratori. 

The  preces  feriales  at  Lauds  and  Vespers  are  re- 
garded as  a  continuation  of  the  supplicationes  and 
obsecrationes  which  St.  Paul  prescribed  for  the  primi- 
tive church.  They  continued  to  be  employed  during 
the  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  centuries  as  a  conclusion 
to  the  office,  especially  at  Lauds  and  Vespers.  They 
comprise  prayers  for  peace,  for  all  classes  of  the 
faithful,  for  the  safety  of  those  in  authority  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  for  blessings  on  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  and  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  souls  in  purgatory. 

(D)  Hymns:  —  We  have  seen  already  how  St. 
Ambrose  introduced  the  singing  of  hymns  at  Milan. 
St.  Benedict  has  no  other  name  for  them  in  his 
rule  than  ambrosianum.  His  regulations  show  that 
they  formed  part  of  the  monastic  office.  At  what 
date  did  Rome  admit  hymns  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  office  for  the  clergy?  To  judge  from  what 
Amalarius  of  Metz  says,  there  was  no  sign  of  it  at 
the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  but  from  the 
middle  of  the  same  century  onwards  hymns  must 
have  been  introduced  into  the  office  used  by  the 
churches  of  the  Frankish  empire,  and  shortly  after- 
wards in  Rome.     There  is  an  interesting  fact  which 


68  The  Roman  Breviary 

goes  to  prove  the  use  of  hymns  in  the  Roman  office 
from  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century.  When  the 
celebration  of  All  Saints  was  extended  to  the  Frankish 
empire  in  825,  after  having  been  observed  in  Rome 
for  two  centuries,  and  its  celebration  fixed  for  the 
1st  of  November,  the  verse  "Gentem  auferte  perfidam 
Credentium  de  finibus  "  was  added  to  the  hymn  with 
reference  to  the  Normans  and  Saracens  who  were 
laying  waste  both  the  north-west  of  Gaul  and  the 
south  of  Italy. 

Walafrid  Strabo  agrees  with  Amalarius.  Rabanus 
Maurus  testifies  that  hymns  were  in  general  usage  in 
the  second  part  of  the  ninth  century.1  It  is  difficult 
to  say  for  certain  what  these  hymns  were,  for  they 
were  not  included  along  with  the  other  liturgical  texts 
in  the  psalters,  antiphonaries,  or  responsories,  but 
were  united  in  a  volume  by  themselves.  Still,  it  may 
be  regarded  as  certain  that  (a)  at  Matins  and  Lauds 
on  the  Sundays  in  winter,  Primo  dierum  omnium  and 
Aiterne  rerum  conditor  were  sung  as  at  the  present 
day,  and  in  summer,  Node  surgentes  and  Ecce  jam 
noctis,  both  attributed  to  St.  Gregory  the  Great ; 
{b)  the  hymns  at  Vespers  and  Compline  varied  with 
the  season.  In  winter  0  lux  beata  Trinitas,  and  in 
summer  Deus  creator  omnium,  were  sung  at  Vespers, 
while  at  Compline  the  hymn  in  winter  was  Christe 
qui  lux  est  et  dies,  and  the  hymn  in  summer  and  on 
festivals  was  Te  lucis  ante  terminum  ;  (c)  on  Sundays 
1  See  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  clx.  159,  cxiv.  956,  cvii.  362. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   69 

and  during  the  week  the  hymns  at  Prime,  Terce, 
Sext,  and  None  were  the  same  as  at  present,  but  a 
change  was  made  during  Lent ;  id)  during  Lent,  the 
hymn  at  Vespers  was  Audi  benigne  conditor,  at 
Matins  and  Lauds  on  ferias  the  prescribed  hymns 
bore  upon  fasting,  Ex  more  docti  mystico  and  Jam 
Christe,  sol  justitice.  In  Passiontide,  the  hymns  on 
the  Cross  were  the  same  as  now  ;  so,  too,  were  the 
hymns  in  Advent.  A  great  number  of  special  hymns 
existed  for  saints'  days  which  are  no  longer  in  use, 
but  the  hymns  for  Eastertide  and  Pentecost,  and 
those  for  Matins,  Vespers,  and  Lauds  of  ferias 
throughout  the  year,  were  those  which  are  still  in  use, 
save  that  they  have  been  touched  up  in  some  points 
in  the  seventeenth  century. 

It  is  impossible  to  be  certain  what  were  the  chapters 
and  short  lections  belonging  to  the  little  hours.  To 
judge  from  St.  Benedict's  rule,  they  were  taken  from 
St.  Paul's  epistles  and  the  prophets.  The  Apocalypse 
was  employed  for  Lauds.  The  passages  were  recited 
from  memory.1 

Nothing  prevents  us  from  supposing  that  on  festi- 
vals of  our  Lord  and  the  saints,  and  on  privileged 
Sundays,  the  chapters  at  Lauds,  Vespers,  Terce, 
Sext,  and  None  were  taken  from  the  epistle  of  the 
Mass.  On  ferias  throughout  the  year  and  on  certain 
Sundays  the  chapters  were  the  same  as  at  present. 
For  the  greater  part  of  the  year  the  Tu  ant  em  in 
1  Regida  S.  Benedicti,  xii.  and  xiii. 


jo  The  Roman  Breviary 

nobis  es  Domine  was  said  at  Compline,  as  it  is  at 
present. 

(E)  Introductory  and  Final  Prayers : — The  office 
opened  with  the  verse  Deus  in  adjutorium  and  the 
Gloria  Patri.  According  to  Chrodegang  or  his 
commentators,  the  entire  psalm  69,  which  begins 
with  the  words  Deus  in  adjutoriiwi,  was  to  be  re- 
cited once  at  least  at  Matins,  not  in  choir,  but  on 
the  way  to  the  church.  On  rising,  the  verse,  Domine, 
labia  mea  aperies  was  to  be  said.  At  the  other  hours, 
the  directions  of  St.  Benedict  and  St.  Gregory  the 
Great  were  followed,  according  to  which  only  the 
first  verse  of  psalm  69  and  the  Gloria  Patri  were 
recited. 

All  the  hours  concluded  with  the  Kyrie  eleison,  the 
preces  or  capitella,  Pater  Noster,  and  a  prayer;  the 
suffrages  followed  and  the  Benedica7nus  Domino. 

Often  there  was  added  the  office  of  All  Saints,  the 
office  for  the  dead,  and  even  from  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  the  little  office  of  our  Lady. 
Perhaps  there  were  added  as  well  the  seven  peni- 
tential psalms,  the  fifteen  gradual  psalms,  or  at  least 
a  series  of  psalms  or  prayers  for  special  necessities. 

The  text  of  the  antiphons  of  our  Lady  was  already 
in  existence,  at  least  in  part,  as  for  example  the  Ave 
Regina  and  the  Regina  Cceli.  The  Alma  Redemptoris 
and  the  Salve  Regina  date  from  the  eleventh  century, 
and  have  been  attributed  to  a  monk  of  Reichenau, 
Herman   Contractus  (+  1054).     However,  these  anti- 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   71 

phons  are  not  mentioned  in  the  liturgical  books 
belonging  to  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  which 
have  come  down  to  us.  The  Regina  Cceli  alone  was 
sung  in  Rome  at  Easter  as  an  antiphon  at  Vespers, 
and  not  at  the  end  of  the  office.  The  present  custom 
seems  to  date  only  from  the  thirteenth  century.  At 
that  period  it  was  in  use  in  the  chapel  of  St.  Louis, 
but  only  at  Compline.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the 
antiphons  of  our  Lady  were  employed  to  replace  the 
little  office  at  all  the  hours. 

The  direction  to  say  the  Pater  and  Credo  before 
Matins  and  Prime,  and  after  Compline,  appears  for 
the  first  time  in  St.  Benedict  of  Aniane  (f  821).  Still 
there  is  ground  for  supposing  that  the  Credo  formed 
part  of  the  Roman  office  from  the  eighth  century 
onwards,  either  at  Matins,  Prime,  or  Compline,  since 
it  appears  in  all  psalters  of  the  eighth  century  or 
beginning  of  the  ninth. 

II.  The  Lections  from  the  Holy  Scripture  and 
from  other  Sources. 

1.  The  First  Four  Centuries: — The  reading  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  in  conjunction  with  the  psalmody 
in  the  divine  office  owes  its  origin  to  Jewish  tradition. 
Our  Lord  consecrated  this  custom  by  taking  part  in 
it  when  present  at  the  worship  of  the  synagogue  (St. 
Luke  iv.  16-30).  The  apostles  adopted  the  custom, 
and  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  (especially  Col.  iv.  16  and 
1  Thess.  v.  27)  show  that  the  writings  of  the  New 


72  The  Roman  Breviary 

Testament  were  read  in  the  church  at  an  early 
date. 

During  the  first  three  centuries  the  rule  was  to 
begin  with  passages  taken  from  the  Pentateuch,  to 
which  were  added  passages  from  the  prophets  and 
from  the  gospels.  The  Pentateuch  and  the  prophets 
were  sometimes  replaced  by  a  passage  from  the 
apostolic  epistles.  A  little  later,  the  following  order 
was  adopted :  a  passage  from  the  Old  Testament, 
another  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul,  and  a  third  from  the  gospels.  The  same 
arrangement  held  good  for  both  the  Mass  and  the 
canonical  hours.  In  the  fourth  century  this  was  the 
case  especially  at  Matins  on  week-days  :  two  lections 
were  read  at  these  hours,  one  from  the  Old  and  one 
from  the  New  Testament ;  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays 
both  lections  were  from  the  New  Testament,  from 
the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  the  gospels  respectively.1 
We  have  no  clear  evidence  to  show  us  what  was  the 
Roman  practice  before  St.  Gregory  the  Great  as 
regards  the  lections  from  Scripture.  St.  Benedict's 
rule  (f  543)  is  the  earliest  information  of  a  certain 
and  detailed  nature  we  possess  concerning  the  lections 
at  the  various  canonical  hours,  at  least  in  Italy. 
M  Codices  legantur  in  vigiliis  tarn  Veteris  Testamenti 
quam  Novi  divinae  auctoritatis ;  sed  et  expositiones 
earum  quae  a  nominatissimis  et  orthodoxis  et 
catholicis     Patribus     factae    sunt "    (ch.     ix.).       We 

1  See  Cassian,  Institut.  Ccenob.  Pair.  Lat.,  xlix.  83  and  90. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   73 

must  not,  then,  conclude  that  there  were  no  pre- 
scribed lections  from  Scripture  before  St.  Gregory's 
time,  especially  in  the  Roman  office. 

The  Acts  of  the  Martyrs  were  read  on  their  festivals, 
but  the  celebration  of  these  anniversaries  remained 
restricted  to  the  Locus  depositionis  or  Locus  tituli 
for  the  first  eight  centuries.1 

St.  Gregory  the  Great  {Epp.>  xii.  c.  24  ;  Patr.  Lat., 
lxxvii.  1234)  testifies  that  in  his  day  the  works  of  the 
Fathers  were  read  at  Matins  —  homilice  comment arii, 
sermones.  An  Ordo  Romanus  dating  from  his  ponti- 
ficate or  that  of  his  predecessor  shows  that  the  lections 
from  Holy  Scripture  formed  an  integral  part  of  the 
daily  pensum  of  prayer. 

2.  The  custom  of  giving  a  blessing  before  the 
lections  was  already  in  existence  in  the  fourth 
century.  The  ruler  of  the  choir,  who  gave  it  at  the 
beginning,  gave  also  the  signal  for  the  termination 
of  the  lesson  by  the  words  Tu  autem  (sal.  desine  or 
cessa)y  to  which  the  reader  responded  Domine,  miserere 
nobis,  while  the  whole  choir  answered  Deo  gratias. 
In  the  palace  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  it  was  by  knocking, 
and  not  by  the  words  Tu  autem  that  the  Emperor 
Charlemagne  gave  the  signal  for  the  conclusion  of 
the  lections,  while  the  lector  recited  himself  Tu  autem, 
Domine,  miserere  nobis.  The  Rituale  Ecclesice  Dun- 
elmensis,  containing  fragments  of  the  Roman  liturgy 

1  Batiffol,  in  his  Histoire  du  Breviare  romai7i)  mentions  an 
Ordo  Romanus  published  by  Tommasi. 


74  The  Roman  Breviary 

from  the  end  of  the  seventh  to  the  ninth  and  tenth 
centuries,  includes  forms  of  blessing  for  the  different 
festivals,  sometimes  three,  sometimes  nine.  In  the 
latter  case,  each  lesson  was  provided  with  its  own 
form  of  blessing,  which  corresponded  with  the  mystery 
commemorated  by  the  festival.  The  absolutions, 
Exaudi  Domine  and  A  vinculis  peccatorum^  did  not 
appear  until  the  succeeding  period. 

3.  What  was  the  subject-matter  of  the  lections? 
As  we  have  just  said,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Acts 
of  the  Martyrs,  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers 
were  read  at  the  choir  office  from  the  earliest  times. 
According  to  Cassian,  the  monks  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  read  at  Matins  and  Vespers  on 
week-days  two  lections  of  greater  length,  one  from 
the  Old  the  other  from  the  New  Testament.  On 
Saturdays,  Sundays,  and  during  the  paschal  season 
both  were  taken  from  the  New  Testament.  Occasion- 
ally, and  specially  at  the  Sunday  Vigils,  there 
were  three  lections.  Among  the  monks  of  the 
West,  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  chiefly 
in  Gaul  and  at  Lerins,  there  were  frequently  two 
lections  at  all  the  hours,  one  from  the  apostle 
and  one  from  the  gospel.  It  may  be  concluded 
that  from  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the  lections 
in  the  office  followed  the  order  of  the  lections  in 
the  Mass.  Cassian's  evidence  agrees  with  what 
we  find  in  St.  John  Chrysostom  and  St.  Augustine 
touching  the  reason  why  the  Acts  of  the   Apostles 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   75 

and    other    New    Testament    books  were    chosen  for 
the  paschal   season.1 

The  information  with  regard  to  the  practice  of  the 
Roman  church  during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
in  what  concerns  the  public  reading  in  church  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  and  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers,  is  derived  from  the  regulations 
attributed  to  Pope  Gelasius.  If  a  letter,  often  wrongly 
interpreted,  of  Paul  the  Deacon  to  Charlemagne,  is 
to  be  believed,  the  order  of  lections  followed  in  the 
eighth  century,  especially  the  choice  of  lections  from 
Scripture  in  the  canonical  office,  is  the  work  of 
St.  Gregory  the  Great  or  Honorius  I.  (-j-638). 
St.  Gregory  the  Great  based  his  reform  upon  St. 
Benedict's  rule,  of  which  he  had  a  very  high  opinion, 
while  St.  Benedict,  in  his  turn,  seems  to  have  followed 
the  arrangement  of  the  Scriptural  lections  in  the  Mass 
such  as  it  existed  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  He 
ordered  a  short  lection  from  Scripture  should  be 
repeated  by  heart  at  the  Little  Hours  as  well  as  at 
Lauds  and  Vespers.  At  Matins  on  ordinary  days, 
except  in  summer,  three  lections  were  to  be  read  from 
the  Old  Testament ;  on  Sundays  and  festivals  the 
lections  of  the  first  nocturn  were  to  be  taken  from  the 
Old  Testament,  of  the  third  from  the  New  Testament 
(Acts,  Epistles,  or  Apocalypse),  and  the  gospels  after 
the  Te  Deum.     The  lections  for  the  second  nocturn 

1  St.  John  Chrysos.,  Patr.  Gr.,  li.  105.  St.  Aug.,  Patr.  Lat., 
xxxv.  3019. 


76  The  Roman  Breviary 

were  taken  from  commentaries  on  Holy  Scripture  by 
the  chief  orthodox  Fathers.  In  the  office  of  three 
lections  in  ordinary  days  in  winter,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  read  for  the  first  lection,  and  a  patristic 
commentary  for  the  second  and  third.  St.  Gregory 
the  Great,  in  his  homilies,  followed  the  order  of  the 
selections  from  the  gospels  already  existing  in  his 
time,  but  for  the  divine  office  he  took  as  his  basis  the 
system  of  lections  drawn  up  by  St.  Benedict.  This 
system  remained  intact  until  the  Carolingian  period, 
as  we  can  see  from  many  Ordines  Romani  belonging 
to  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries.  One 
small  deviation  from  St.  Benedict's  rule  with  regard 
to  the  third  nocturn  was  made  by  St.  Gregory  or  one 
of  his  successors. 

The  influence  of  St.  Benedict's  rule  in  the  Roman 
office  is  easily  explained  by  the  fact  that  from  the 
seventh  to  the  ninth  century  Benedictine  monks 
celebrated  the  divine  office  in  almost  all  the  basilicas 
of  Rome. 

From  the  comparison  of  the  Ordines  Romani  and 
the  existing  distribution  of  the  books  of  Holy 
Scripture,  we  obtain  the  following  result :  From 
Christmas  to  Septuagesima  the  lections  were  taken 
from  the  Old  Testament,  while  the  existing  Roman 
Breviary  appoints  lections  from  St.  Paul's  epistles, 
which  were  formerly  assigned  to  the  third  nocturn  on 
Sundays  ;  from  Easter  to  autumn,  the  order  was  the 
same   as   at   present,   except    that    the    Acts   of   the 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   yj 

Apostles  was  begun  on  Easter  day  itself,  while  at 
present  we  begin  the  Acts  only  on  Quasimodo  Mon- 
day ;  from  the  beginning  of  autumn  (November), 
when  we  read  the  Prophet  Ezechiel  and  the  other 
Prophets  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  given  in  the 
Bible,  the  lections  were  taken  from  the  historical 
books — Job,  Tobias,  Judith,  Esther,  and  the  Macha- 
bees — Isaias  being  read  from  the  ist  December  to  the 
Vigil  of  Christmas.  The  five  books  of  Moses,  along 
with  Josue,  Judges,  and  Ruth,  were  begun  on  the 
fifteenth  or  twelfth  day  before  Quadragesima,  i.e.  on 
either  Septuagesima  or  Sexagesima  Sunday.  In  early 
times  the  new  year  commenced  on  the  ist  March,  and 
thus  the  lections  from  the  earlier  books  of  the  Bible 
coincided  with  the  beginning  of  the  year.  The  con- 
secutive reading  of  the  Bible  was  broken  in  upon  by 
Passiontide  and  Easter,  when  special  lections  were 
prescribed — the  Prophets  and  Job  for  Passiontide, 
the  New  Testament  (omnia  nova)  for  Easter.  The 
passage  forming  the  gospel  for  the  day  was  read 
entire  at  Matins  in  the  Roman  office,  and  not,  as  at 
the  present  day,  merely  the  first  few  lines,  with  the 
formula  "  et  reliqua"  a  custom  which  appears  to 
have  lasted  up  to  the  time  of  St.  Gregory  VII. 

On  saints'  days,  such  as  could  be  celebrated  on 
Sundays  (i.e.  festivals  with  nine  lections,  duplicia),  or 
such  as,  falling  in  the  week,  were  regarded  as  solemn 
days,  all  the  lections  were  taken  from  the  life  or 
passion  of  the  saint.     The  same  was  also  frequently 


78  The  Roman  Breviary 

done  on  days  when  there  were  only  three  lections 
{Festa  simplicia).  Should  the  gesta,  vitce,  or  passiones 
not  be  sufficient  to  make  nine  lections,  they  were 
employed  at  the  third  nocturn  only,  lections  from 
Scripture  or  the  Fathers  being  read  at  first  and  second 
nocturns.  Saints'  days  which  were  not  solemnly 
celebrated  could  not,  as  a  rule,  entirely  replace  the 
Sunday  office,  three  or  six  lections  from  the  latter 
being  in  these  cases  retained. 

As  regards  the  substance  and  length,  such  lections 
as  were  not  drawn  from  the  Scriptures  then  in  course 
of  reading  were  chosen  by  the  abbot  or  bishop.  Just 
as  the  psalter  was  to  be  gone  through  once  a  week, 
the  Bible  was  to  be  read  through  in  the  course  of 
a  year,  along  with  the  commentaries  of  the  principal 
Fathers.  Such  was  the  underlying  principle,  and  its 
application  was  not  difficult,  taking  the  length  of  the 
lections  into  consideration — fifteen  or  twenty  chapters 
being  read  during  the  winter  nights.  Thus,  in  the 
Ordo  Cluniacensis  of  St.  Ulrich,  the  whole  of  Isaias 
was  read  in  ten  nights,  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
in  three  Matins.1 

III.  Festivals  and  the  Liturgical  Year. 

The  distinction  between  the  Proprium  de  Tempore 

and  the  Proprium  Sanctorum  does  not  appear  before 

the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  centuries.     During  the  period 

now  under  consideration  the   Proprium  de  Tempore 

1  See  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  cxlix.  644. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   79 

included  the  whole  liturgical  year,  even  the  fixed 
festivals  (immobilia)  of  our  Lady  and  the  saints. 
These  are  to  be  found  after  the  Sundays  and  principal 
feasts,  according  to  needs  and  requirements. 

Roman  service-books  from  the  eighth  to  the  tenth 
centuries  begin,  as  a  rule,  with  the  Vigils  of  the 
Nativity  (Nono  kalendas  januarii),  and  contain  at 
the  end  of  the  liturgical  year  five  or  six  Sundays 
ante  Natale,  the  Ember  days,  and  St.  Andrew's  day  as 
the  concluding  festival  of  the  year.  Upon  this  follows 
the  office  for  the  consecration  of  a  church,  the 
commons  of  Apostles,  Martyrs,  Confessors,  Virgins 
(one  or  more).  In  the  Antiphonary  of  St.  Gregory 
(MS.  of  St.  Gall,  tenth  century),  the  liturgical  year 
begins  with  the  Mass  for  the  first  Sunday  in 
Advent. 

The  Sundays  were  reckoned  "  after  the  Nativity," 
u  after  the  Epiphany  M  ;  perhaps  also,  but  very  rarely, 
"post  Cathedram  Petri"  in  February.  Then  came 
Septuagesima — the  seventieth  day  before  the  Sunday 
in  albis — and  the  Octave  of  Easter.  Next  followed  the 
Sundays  after  Easter,  the  Ascension,  Pentecost,  after 
the  feast  of  the  Holy  Apostles,  after  the  feasts  of  St. 
Lawrence,  St.  Michael,  SS.  Cornelius  and  Cyprian. 
Palm  Sunday  was  called  Dominica  Indidgentice. 

One  small  difference  deserves  notice.  While  St. 
Gregory,  as  is  generally  granted,  gives  four  Sundays  in 
Advent  with  proper  Mass  and  office,  the  Gallican  and 
Gallo-Roman  books  begin  with  four  or  five  Sundays 


80  The  Roman  Breviary 

in  Advent.  The  explanation  of  this  may  be  that  in 
course  of  time  supplemental  pages  were  added  to  the 
volumes,  upon  which  new  additions  were  written  with- 
out regard  to  the  original  order. 

There  was  no  universal  uniformity  with  regard  to 
the  celebration  of  the  two  first  Embertides.  St. 
Gregory  VII.  finally  laid  down  the  law  on  this  point, 
but  before  his  time  the  spring  Ember  days  were  cele- 
brated in  some  churches  in  March  (Jejunium  primi 
mensis),  and  those  in  summer  after  the  middle  of  June 
(Jejunium  mensis  quartz).  The  year  formerly  began 
on  the  first  of  March,  and  February  was  accordingly 
the  concluding  month  of  the  year.  Thus  each  quarter 
was  sanctified  at  its  beginning  by  the  Embertides  of 
the  first,  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth  months.  Ember 
Saturdays  were  called  "  sabbatum  duodechn  lectioniint" 
because  the  Mass  of  the  day  was  sung  in  the  evening 
or  at  night  after  None. 

The  mysteries  of  the  Holy  Trinity  and  of  the  Trans- 
figuration began  during  this  period  to  be  distinguished 
by  special  Masses  and  offices.  With  regard  to  the 
former  there  was  a  great  disagreement,  which  lasted 
from  the  eighth  to  the  fourteenth  century,  concerning 
the  office  for  the  Sunday  after  Pentecost :  Was  it  to 
be  kept  as  the  Octave  of  Pentecost,  or  as  the  festival 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  as  a  simple  Sunday?  About 
920,  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Liege,  introduced  a  festival 
and  office  into  his  diocese  which  spread  to  Southern 
Germany,  and  was  even  adopted  at  Cluny,  although 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   81 

Pope  Alexander  II.  (f  1073)  declared  that  Rome  did 
not  accept  them. 

An  office  for  the  Transfiguration  appears  in  the 
Mozarabic  liturgy  ;  a  codex  in  the  National  Library 
in  Paris  belonging  to  the  twelfth  century  contains  an 
office  for  this  festival,  probably  composed  by  Peter  the 
Venerable.  The  festival  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Holy 
Cross  dates  from  the  fourth  century,  that  of  the  In- 
vention on  the  3rd  May,  from  the  eighth  or  ninth. 

It  is  impossible  in  a  short  work  such  as  this  to  give 
details  concerning  the  feasts  of  the  martyrs  and  saints. 
We  can  only  speak  of  the  four  chief  festivals  of  our 
Lady  which  were  established  in  the  course  of  this 
period. 

(A)  The  Purification  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time 
in  the  diary  of  Etheria  (Sylvia).1  It  was  celebrated 
at  Jerusalem  by  a  special  office,  not  on  the  2nd  but 
on  the  15th  February,  forty  days  after  Epiphany,  the 
Christmas  of  the  Easterns  (6th  January).  It  is  usually 
thought  that  the  feast  was  introduced  into  the  West  in 
the  fifth  century  by  Pope  Gelasius,  who  coupled  with 
it  and  distinguished  it  by  a  procession  of  lights,  with 
the  intention  of  supplanting  the  heathen  festival  of 
the  Lupercalia.  The  antiphons  at  Vespers  and  Lauds 
point  to  the  Greek  origin  of  the  feast,  and  to  the 
period  of  the  Council  of  Ephesus.  The  earliest  indica- 
tion of  its  observance  in  Rome  is  given  by  the  Liber 
Pontificalis  in  the  Life  of  Pope  Sergius  I.  (687-701). 
1  Dom  Cabrol,  Etude  sur  la  Peregrinatio  S.  Sy Ivicb \  pp.  77 ,  78. 


82  The  Roman  Breviary 

(B)  The  origin  of  the  festival  of  the  Annunciation  is 
rather  obscure.  A  Council  of  Toledo  in  656  speaks 
of  the  difficulty  of  celebrating  it  on  the  25th  March 
on  account  of  Lent,  and  so  transfers  it  to  the  18th 
December  (Expectatio  Partus).  The  festival  is  cer- 
tainly more  ancient  than  this.  We  know  that  St. 
Helena  (in  the  fourth  century),  having  discovered  at 
Nazareth  the  house  wherein  the  mystery  of  the  In- 
carnation was  accomplished,  erected  a  basilica  on  the 
site.  This  very  probably  give  rise  to  a  festival,  which 
other  churches  subsequently  adopted.  There  are 
traces  in  the  liturgy  which  seem  to  point  to  a  com- 
memoration at  least  of  the  Annunciation  at  a  date 
not  far  removed  from  the  fourth  century.  The 
Ravenna  roll,  belonging  to  the  first  half  of  the  fifth 
century,  contains  ten  prayers  which  plainly  have  to  do 
with  this  mystery.  With  regard  to  the  day  on  which 
the  festival  is  kept,  the  opinion  at  present  most  widely 
held  regards  the  25th  March  as  the  anniversary  of 
Christ's  death  and  conception.  A  difficulty  was 
caused  by  Lent,  during  which  no  festivals  were  cele- 
brated in  primitive  times  ;  but  as  the  liturgical  signifi- 
cance of  Lent  became  overlaid,  the  Annunication  came 
everywhere  to  be  observed  on  the  25th  March.  The 
early  Middle  Ages,  more  strict  as  to  these  matters, 
transferred  the  festival  to  Advent.  In  fact,  the  Ex- 
pectation of  our  Lady  on  the  18th  December  presents 
in  its  office  some  resemblances  to  the  mystery  of  the 
Annunciation. 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages   83 

(C)  The  feast  of  the  Assumption  has  been  known 
by  different  names  —  Dormitio,  Pausatio,  Transitus 
B.AL  That  of  the  Assumption  has  prevailed  over  the 
others  because  it  more  exactly  explains  the  object  of 
the  mystery,  i.e.  the  death  of  our  Lady,  her  resurrec- 
tion, and  her  triumphal  entry  into  heaven  in  body 
and  soul.  The  existence  of  the  account  of  this  fact 
does  not  directly  prove  the  existence  of  the  feast.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  feast  had  its  origin  at  the 
tomb  of  our  Lady  in  Gethsemani,  as  a  consequence  of 
the  pilgrimages  made  to  this  spot  by  the  faithful. 
The  fact  that  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  the 
Assumption  was  solemnly  celebrated  in  East  and 
West  warrants  us  in  concluding  that  its  institution 
dates  back  to  the  end  of  the  fifth  century.  The  earliest 
date  seems  to  have  been  the  18th  January,  at  least  in 
the  West.  The  Emperor  Maurice  (582-602)  altered 
it  to  the  15th  August,  on  which  date  it  is  still  cele- 
brated. Some  uncertainty  was  shown  with  regard  to 
the  feast,  but  about  847  Pope  Leo  IV.  appointed  an 
Octave,  and  probably  also  a  Vigil,  for  it.1 

(D)  The  Nativity  of  our  Lady. — M  This  feast/'  says 
JVIgr.  Duchesne  {Origines  du  Culte  chretie?i,  p.  261), 
along  with  the  three  preceding,  is  marked  in  the 
Gelasian  Sacramentary,  which  shows  that  from  the 
seventh  century  it  was  also  celebrated  in  Rome.  A 
document   contemporary    with    the    Trullan    Council 

1  For  the  two  last  festivals,  see  the  Diction?iaire  cTArche'ologie 
chretien?ie  et  de  Liturgie,  under  Annonciation  and  Asso??iption. 


84  The  Roman  Breviary 

(692)  mentions  it  on  the  8th  September.  The  feast 
seems  to  have  been  of  Byzantine  origin.  As  regards 
the  festival  of  our  Lady's  Presentation  in  the  Temple, 
it  seems  certain  that  it  originated  at  Jerusalem  at  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century.  This,  at  least,  is  the 
opinion  of  Fr.  Vailhe  in  the  Echos  d* Orient,  1902. 

Section  4.— Some  Peculiarities  in  the 
Office 
We  have  somewhat  exceeded  the  limits  of  the 
period  dealt  with  in  this  chapter,  but  before  we  leave 
the  period  (591-814)  altogether,  we  must  say  a  few 
words  on  the  structure  of  the  hours  in  the  ninth 
century.  The  antiphons,  psalms,  and  responds  were 
almost  the  same  as  at  the  present  day  ;  still,  a  few 
peculiarities  may  be  noticed.  At  Matins  in  Easter 
week  the  same  psalms  were  not  then  recited  daily 
during  the  Octave,  but  three  were  said  each  day, 
beginning  with  the  1st  psalm  and  ending  with  the 
1 8th  or  24th.  At  Vespers  on  great  feasts,  according 
to  Amalarius  and  Mabillon,  the  ferial  psalms  for 
Saturday  were  often  employed.  On  festivals  which 
for  the  most  part  fell  on  week-days,  such  as  Christmas, 
Epiphany,  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  St.  Lawrence,  the 
Assumption,  two  Matins  were  recited,  those  of  the 
feria  and  those  of  the  feast.  The  former  was  a  kind 
of  Vigil  composed  only  of  the  psalms  of  the  feria  and 
three  lections  without  invitatory.  One  of  the  two 
offices  for  Christmas  was  afterwards  transferred  in  a 


Formation  of  Breviary  in  its  Early  Stages  85 

somewhat  modified  form  to  the  1st  January,  as  an 
"Officium  de  B.  Maria  Virgine"  or  "de  Circumcisione  vel 
Octava  Domini"  and  one  of  the  two  Epiphany  offices 
was  transferred  to  the  13th  January.  This  explains 
the  absence  of  the  invitatory  in  the  office  of  this 
festival,  the  94th  psalm  occurring  in  the  nocturns. 
According  to  Amalarius,  it  was  only  in  his  own  day, 
during  the  ninth  century,  that  the  second  office  began 
to  be  transferred  to  another  day.  At  Rome,  where 
the  canons  of  St.  Peter's  had  first  to  assist  at  their 
own  night  office  and  then  in  the  morning  went  with 
the  pope  to  celebrate  the  papal  office  in  another 
basilica,  the  custom  of  double  offices  was  observed 
for  some  time  longer. 

The  recitation  of  the  hours  in  choir  and  in  church 
took  up  much  more  time  then  than  now,  owing  to  the 
length  of  the  lections  and  the  singing  of  the  antiphons. 
Even  if  the  psalms  were  no  longer  recited  by  one 
person  as  at  first,  the  antiphons  and  second  half  of 
the  verse  being  repeated  by  all  together  after  each 
verse,  still  the  custom  of  inserting  an  antiphon  either 
after  each  verse  or  after  every  two  or  three  verses, 
was  maintained. 

Other  customs  were  also  observed,  such  as  frequent 
incensations,  the  insertion  of  tropes  and  sequences — 
methods  adopted  by  the  Church  in  order  to  appeal 
to  the  senses,  to  lift  up  the  hearts  of  men  towards 
heaven,  and  to  give  to  the  faithful  in  the  house  of  God 
a  foretaste  of  the  joys  and  splendours  of  Paradise. 


CHAPTER  II 

from  charlemagne  to  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century  (8 i4-i305) 

Section  i.  —  Alterations  in  the  Roman 
Breviary  during  the  Ninth  and  Tenth 
Centuries 

ALTHOUGH  the  Franks  adopted  the  Roman  liturgy,  it 
was  not  long  before  they  introduced  changes  into  it ; 
they  transformed  the  Responsory,  altered  the  system  of 
lections,  and  increased  the  number  of  liturgical  texts. 

1.  Transformation  of  the  Responsory :  —  We  have 
already  spoken  of  Alcuin's  work  under  Charlemagne ; 
he  had  many  disciples  and  imitators  in  the  domain 
of  liturgy. 

Under  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  Amalarius  of  Metz 
went  to  Rome  to  study  the  divine  office,  and  to  learn 
the  order  and  rules  regulating  its  celebration ;  he 
was  informed  that  a  copy  of  the  Roman  antiphonary 
had  been  taken  to  Corbie,  and  on  his  return  to 
France  never  rested  until  he  had  studied  its  contents. 
He  found  it  differed  from  the  antiphonary  brought 
from  Rome  to  Metz  under  Chrodegang,  and  from  a 

86 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Foztrteenth  Centttry   87 

comparison  of  the  two  resulted  a  new  text,  to  which 
Amalarius  made  some  additions.  Not  satisfied  with 
this  first  attempt,  Amalarius  soon  published  a  book, 
De  Ecclesiasiicis  Officiis,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  office.  Another  book,  De  Ordine 
Antiphonarii,  followed,  being  the  result  of  a  fresh 
combination  of  the  Roman  antiphonary  with  the  anti- 
phonary  of  Metz.  He  showed  little  scruple  in  making 
changes,  but  we  find  reliable  information  in  the  book 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  responds  and  antiphons, 
and  of  the  two  Roman  night  offices  for  certain  festivals 
(we  mention  only  what  concerns  the  Breviary).1 

A  chancellor  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  Helisachar, 
abbot  first  of  St.  Riquier  and  then  of  St.  Maximin  at 
Trier,  also  took  great  pains  in  correcting  or  replacing 
the  responds  of  the  antiphonary.  He  found  himself 
arrested  by  the  difficulty  that  in  Gaul  and  in  Rome 
the  responds  were  not  recited  in  the  same  way.  In 
Rome  the  respond  was  repeated  entire  after  the 
versicle,  but  in  Gaul  the  repetition  consists  of  only 
the  first  half  of  the  respond,  which  in  some  cases  led 
to  strange  results,  as  in  the  following  example : — 

In    Rome:   ty.  Tu    es    Petrus*   ait    Dominus    ad 

Simonem. 

y.  Ecce  sacerdos  magnus  qui  in  diebus 

suis  placuit  Deo. 

(Repetition)  Tu  es  Petrus  .... 

1  For  further   details    see    the    Dictionnaire    cFArche'ologie 
chretienne  et  de  Liturgie,  under  Amalaire^  i.  1323. 


88  The  Roman  Breviary 

In    Gaul :   ty.  Tu    es    Petrus  *    ait    Dominus    ad 

Simonem. 
y.  Ecce  sacerdos  magnus  qui  in  diebus 

suis  placuit  Deo. 
(Repetition)  ait  Dominus  ad  Simonem. 

Helisachar,  in  his  desire  to  get  at  the  sense  of 
what  was  sung,  found  such  combinations  quite  in- 
tolerable, and  sought  to  remedy  them  by  corrections. 
Amalarius,  while  praising  the  work  of  Helisachar,  is 
more  conservative ;  he  retains  what  was  traditional 
and  ancient,  introduces  versicles  and  responds  taken 
from  ancient  Roman  books,  and  from  books  belong- 
ing to  Metz,  selects  passages  from  the  gospels  which 
seem  to  fit  in  with  the  antiphons,  and  adds  them  to 
what  he  found  in  the  Roman  books,  makes  alterations 
in  the  order  here  and  there,  and  gives  completion  to 
the  whole  by  adding  some  offices  for  saints  days 
proper  to  the  church  of  Metz. 

The  work  of  Amalarius  gave  rise  to  violent  opposi- 
tion. Agobard,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  has  no  mercy 
for  him.  Without  actually  naming  Amalarius,  it  is 
sufficiently  plain  that  he  attacks  him  in  his  book  De 
Divina  Psalmodia.  Still,  on  his  own  part,  he  con- 
sidered that  he  also  could  improve  the  divine  office, 
as  St.  Gregory  had  done,  while  adapting  it  to  the 
usages  of  his  church.  Accordingly,  he  rejected  certain 
psalms,  which  he  called  "plebeian/'  suppressed  poetical 
compositions,   excluded   everything   not   taken   from 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century   89 

Holy  Scripture  —  a  principle  strangely  abused  by 
Protestants  and  Jansenists.  In  his  work  De  Correctione 
Antiphonarii,  he  assumes  and  develops  his  thesis  con- 
cerning the  exclusive  employment  of  Holy  Scripture, 
cuts  down  what  he  calls  superfluities  and  frivolities, 
and  also  what  he  considers  to  savour  of  lying  and 
blasphemy.  He  went  to  even  greater  lengths  in 
attacking  Amalarius,  whose  mystical  interpretations 
he  undertakes  to  censure  in  his  Contra  Libros  iv. 
Amalarii} 

In  spite  of  all,  the  reform  of  Amalarius  held  its 
ground,  first  in  Metz,  and  then  in  the  greater  number 
of  the  churches  north  of  the  Alps.  In  the  twelfth 
century  Gallican  usages  made  their  way  even  into  the 
Eternal  City  ;  and  so  the  introduction  of  the  Roman 
chant  into  the  Frankish  empire  resulted  in  the  altera- 
tion of  a  considerable  part  of  the  text  of  the  Roman 
responsory. 

2.  Modification  of  the  system  of  Lections :  —  The 
great  length  of  the  lections  led  to  the  repetition  of 
St.  Paul's  epistles  several  times  in  the  course  of  the 
year.  An  attempt  was  made  to  so  distribute  the 
epistles  throughout  the  course  of  the  year  that  they 
would  be  read  only  once  in  the  first  nocturn.  In  the 
Carolingian  period  a  desire  was  shown  to  conclude 
Matins  with  a  homily  on  the  Gospel,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  commentaries  and   the   sermons   of  the 

1  Dictionnaire  d  Archeologie  chretienne  et  de  Liturgie, 
Agobard,  vol.  i.  971. 


90  The  Roman  Breviary 

Fathers  on  the  Old  Testament  are  introduced  into 
the  second  nocturn.  Among  the  works  of  revision 
and  codification  undertaken  by  Alcuin  is  generally 
numbered  a  Homilarium  or  selection  of  passages 
from  the  Fathers  on  the  gospels  occurring  in  the 
divine  office.1 

The  first  Ordo  Romanics  implies  the  existence  of 
this  tendency  in  Rome,  and  the  Ordo  Romanus  XL 
proves  it  explicitly.  The  canon,  Benedict,  to  whom 
this  latter  ordo  is  ascribed,  says :  "  At  Rome,  in  St. 
Peter's  and  in  the  Papal  chapel,  we  read  on  the 
Sundays  of  Advent  and  Lent  at  the  third  nocturn 
two  lections  de  Epistola  (S.  Pauli),  i.e.  the  seventh 
and  eighth  lections,  and  then,  for  the  ninth  lection,  a 
homily  on  the  gospel  for  the  Sunday.  But  at  Easter 
and  on  great  feasts,  with  the  exception  of  Pentecost, 
the  whole  gospel  as  well  as  a  homily  on  it  are  read  at 
the  third  nocturn"2 

Paul  the  Deacon,  who  was  a  monk  at  Monte 
Cassino  and  became  the  historian  of  the  Lombards, 
was  entrusted  by  Charlemagne  with  the  compilation 
of  a  series  of  lections  for  the  whole  year  and  for  each 
festival.  He  compiled  two  volumes  containing  not 
only  sermones  for  the  second  nocturn  and  homilice  in 
evangelium  for  the  third  nocturn,  but  also,  among  the 
latter,  commentaries  on  St.  Paul's  epistles. 

From  this  work  of  Paul  the  Deacon,  as  well  as  from 

1  Op.  cit.,  Alcuin,  vol.  i.  1077. 

2  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxviii.,  ordo  i.  958,  ordo  xi.  1027-1039. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century   9 1 

a  passage  in  Hildemar,  and  from  the  Ordines  Romani 
I.  and  XI.y  it  is  evident  that  in  the  period  between  St. 
Gregory  the  Great  and  Innocent  III.  the  gospel 
with  a  homily  was  read  for  the  most  part  at  the 
third  nocturn  on  Sundays,  and  often  either  the 
epistle  of  the  Sunday  or  a  passage  from  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul  with  a  commentary  in  addition.  Since 
Charlemagne's  time,  both  the  homilies  and  the 
lections  of  the  first  nocturn  have  undergone  a  slight 
modification.  St.  Paul's  epistles  are  no  longer  found 
as  before  in  the  third  nocturn  on  Sundays  and 
festivals  throughout  the  year,  but  only  in  the  period 
of  the  liturgical  year  actually  assigned  to  them,  i.e. 
from  the  Sunday  in  the  octave  of  Christmas  to 
Septuagesima  Sunday.1  The  reading  of  the  epistle 
at  Matins  along  with  the  homily  on  the  gospel  was 
kept  up  during  a  long  period — in  Rome  probably  to 
the  reign  of  Innocent  III.  It  was  omitted  on  great 
festivals  from  the  seventh  century  onwards,  and 
gradually  on  all  Sundays  and  festivals  as  well. 

3.  Growth  of  new  liturgical  texts : — In  consequence 
of  the  incursions  of  the  Lombards,  Saracens,  and 
Normans,  many  churches  and  tombs  of  Saints  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Rome  were  destroyed  (seventh  to 
ninth  centuries),  and  others  were  either  threatened 
with  the  same  fate  or  severely  damaged  by  floods, 
tempests,  and  earthquakes.     The  popes  found  them- 

1  See  Coutumes  de  Cluny  ;  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  cxlix.  613,  and 
Jean  d'Avranches  ;  Migne,  Pair.  Latn  cxlvii.  43. 


92  The  Roman  Breviary 

selves  compelled  either  to  restore  these  sanctuaries  or 
to  translate  the  relics  of  the  Saints  to  places  of  security 
without  the  walls  of  Rome.  Numerous  translations 
of  relics  took  place  in  Germany  and  France  also. 
This  gave  rise  to  the  existence  of  a  large  number  of 
festivals,  at  first  only  of  local  interest,  but  which, 
during  the  following  period,  were  introduced  into  the 
calendar  of  the  universal  church.  On  the  other  hand, 
out  of  compliment  to  the  Franks,  some  of  their 
customs  were  adopted  in  Rome.  The  Liber  Pontifi- 
calis  gives  us  an  illustration  of  this  when  it  informs 
us  that  under  Leo  III.  (j-  816)  the  Rogation  days, 
which  had  long  been  observed  in  Gaul,  were  intro- 
duced in  Rome.  This  tendency  was  even  more 
marked  under  Louis  le  Debonnaire  and  Charles  the 
Bald. 

It  is  interesting  to  witness  the  influence  exercised 
over  the  popes  of  the  eleventh  century  by  two 
monarchs  deeply  attracted  by  all  that  belonged  to 
the  liturgy.  One  of  these,  Robert  the  Pious.  King  of 
France,  gained  the  distinction  of  having  a  respond  of 
his  own  composition  sung  at  the  divine  office  in  St. 
Peter's,  and  in  France  it  continued  to  be  sung  as  late 
as  the  eighteenth  century.  The  other,  St.  Henry, 
Emperor  of  Germany,  when  at  Rome  for  his  corona- 
tion, was  astonished  to  find  that  the  creed  was  not  sung 
at  the  Mass  (Sunday,  14th  February  10 14),  whilst 
everywhere  else  throughout  the  West  it  was  sung  on 
Sundays.     He  was  able  to   bring   it   about  that,  for 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century   93 

the  edification  of  the  pilgrims  who  came  to  the 
Eternal  City,  the  creed  was  inserted  into  the 
formulary  of  the  Mass. 

Section  2. — The  Divine  Office  from  St. 
Gregory  VII.  (1073)  T0  Innocent  III.  (1198) 

Has  the  Roman  office  any  history  during  this 
period,  or  even  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne, 
i.e.  during  almost  four  centuries  ?  It  would  appear 
not,  according  to  M.  Batififol's  History  of  the  Roman 
Breviary.  There  one  reads,  p.  158  (Eng.  ed.):  "The 
Roman  office,  such  as  we  have  seen  it  to  be  in  the 
time  of  Charlemagne,  held  its  ground  at  Rome  itself 
in  the  customs  of  the  basilicas  without  any  sensible 
modification  throughout  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries,  and  even  down  to  the  close  of  the  twelfth : " 
and,  a  little  earlier,  p.  134,  a  propos  of  a  decree  of 
St.  Gregory  VII :  "  The  Roman  office  of  the  eighth 
century  remained  intact  at  Rome  in  the  eleventh,  and 
....  those  liturgists  are  mistaken  who  have  looked 
upon  this  decree  as  a  reform  on  the  part  of  Gregory 
VII.,  making  a  fresh  regulation  as  to  the  office,  when 
in  reality  he  was  but  confirming  the  custom  of  the 
eighth  century." 

Who  the  liturgists  mentioned  in  this  passage  are 
is  told  us  by  M.  Batiffol  in  an  article  in  the  Bulletin 
critique  (1st  January  1892,  p.  12):  "Dom  Gueranger 
croyait  a  cette  pretendue  reforme  ;  mais  il  n'en  a  pas 
donne  une    seule   bonne    preuve,  et  j'en    ai   cherche 


94  The  Roman  Breviary 

vainement  dans  l'article  de  D.  Baumer  consacre  k 
cette  meme  question." x 

These,  then,  are  the  two  authors  whom  Mgr.  Batiffol 
controverts,  and  from  whom  he  frankly  declares  his 
disagreement.  Dom  Gueranger  is  not  alive  to  under- 
take his  own  defence,  and  perhaps  he  might  yield 
something  to  the  opinion  of  his  opponent.  In  his 
Institutions  liturgiques  (vol.  i.  p.  281,  ed.  Palme,  1880), 
he  thus  describes  the  work  of  St.  Gregory  VII. :  M  His 
labours  had  for  their  object  the  reduction  of  the 
divine  office  ....  St.  Gregory  VII.  abridged  the 
order  of  the  prayers  and  simplified  the  liturgy  for 
the  use  of  the  Roman  curia.  It  would  be  difficult  at 
the  present  time  to  ascertain  accurately  the  complete 
form  of  the  office  before  this  revision,  but  since  then 
it  has  remained  almost  identical  with  what  it  was  at 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century." 

Dom  Baumer,  after  the  sweeping  statement  just 
quoted,  felt  bound  to  study  the  question  once  more. 
The  following  is  his  answer  to  the  criticism  : 2  "  If  Dom 
Gueranger  was  mistaken  in  attributing  to  St  Gregory 
VII.  too  great  a  share  in  giving  to  the  Roman  office 
its  definite  form,  M.  Batiffol  is  also  mistaken  in  stating 
that  the  office  remained  stationary  and  underwent  no 
modifications  from  the  ninth  to  the  twelth  centuries." 

1  "  Dom  Gueranger  believed  in  this  pretended  reform  ;  but  he 
does  not  produce  one  solid  argument  in  support  of  it,  and  I  have 
sought  in  vain  for  proofs  in  the  article  which  Dom  Baumer  has 
devoted  to  the  same  question." 

2  Histoire  du  Brdv.  rom.,  ii.  p.  5. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century   95 

The  views  of  Dom  Baumer  on  this  particular  point 
may  thus  be  summarized  :  the  Roman  Breviary,  during 
the  period  alluded  to  by  M.  Batiffol,  underwent  a 
development  and  received  alterations  in  which  St. 
Gregory  VI 1.  had  a  share.  The  proofs  to  the  contrary 
alleged  by  his  opponent  seemed  very  weak  to  the 
learned  Benedictine;  those  upon  which  he  himself 
relies  consist  in  a  simple  outline  of  the  history  of  the 
office — this  we  summarize  as  follows: — 

First  of  all,  M.  Batiffol's  opinion  (p.  134)  that  the 
decree  of  Gregory  VII.  shows  an  arrangement  of 
Matins  identical  with  that  described  by  Amalarius 
about  830  proves  nothing.  The  truth  is  that  the 
Matins  described  by  Amalarius,  the  Matins  pre- 
scribed by  Gregory  VII.,  and  the  Matins  in  the  exist- 
ing Roman  Breviary  are  one  and  the  same,  inasmuch 
as  they  have  twelve  psalms  and  three  lections  for  ferias, 
nine  psalms  and  nine  lections  for  festivals,  and  for 
Sundays  eighteen  psalms  and  nine  lections.  What 
we  have  previously  said  is  sufficient  to  show  that 
there  may  be  other  elements  contained  in  the 
Breviary. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  references  in  the  Antiphonary 
to  the  Responsory  of  St.  Peter's  of  the  twelfth  century 
which  have  been  appealed  to  rather  go  to  prove  that 
modifications  similar  to  those  made  by  Helisachar 
and  Amalarius  (see  above,  pp.  87,  88)  were  effected  in 
St.  Peter's.  M.  Batiffol  himself  describes  the  non- 
Roman  custom  presented  by  the  Antiphonary  of  St. 


96  The  Roman  Breviary 

Peter's  of  adding  the  suffrages  to  the  offices  of  Lauds 
and  Vespers  as  a  novelty.  The  testimony  of  Abelard, 
which  is  next  appealed  to,  does  not  favour  the  view 
of  M.  Batiffol,  for  Abelard  is  dealing  with  a  problem 
which  is  always  turning  up  in  the  history  of  liturgy — 
how  to  explain  the  ever  renewed  efforts  after  ritual 
uniformity  and  the  ever  recurring  difficulty  in  its 
realisation.  In  speaking  of  the  Ordines  Romani  of 
the  twelfth  century,  M.  Batiffol  confuses  the  ceremonies 
with  the  office  or  text  of  the  office  itself.  Although 
the  office  may  have  remained  unchanged  when  the 
ceremonial  was  unaltered,  we  have  no  right  to  infer 
the  identity  of  the  office  from  the  identity  of  the 
ceremonial,  provided  we  have  reasons  for  believing 
that  certain  modifications  were  made  in  the  text. 
Indeed,  the  history  of  the  changes  in  the  Roman 
ceremonial  depends  upon  causes  very  different  from 
those  which  led  to  the  transformation  of  the  office, 
such  as  the  frequent  and  prolonged  absences  of 
the  pope  and  the  curia  from  Rome.  But  this  is  a 
question  which  cannot  be  treated  here  in  detail. 

We  must  then,  says  Dom  Baumer,  approach  the 
history  of  the  divine  office  during  this  period  from 
another  point  of  view. 

1.  Before  St.  Gregory  VII.,  the  political  and 
religious  changes  immediately  following  upon  the 
splendours  of  Charlemagne's  reign  throw  light  upon 
the  contemporary  history  of  the  liturgy.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  the  Carolingian  sovereigns  and  those 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century   97 

of  the  dynasty  of  Otho  had  much  to  do  with  the 
formation  of  certain  rites.  They  owed  this  influence 
to  their  taste  for  grand  liturgical  functions,  and  to 
their  appreciation  of  the  civilizing  power  of  the 
Catholic  liturgy.  A  glance  at  the  religious,  political, 
and  social  events  of  which  Rome  was  the  scene  shows 
that  the  Roman  church  during  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  was  in  a  sadly  moribund  condition,  while 
Germany  and  Burgundy  were  full  of  intense  intel- 
lectual activity  and  religious  life.  In  Rome,  during 
the  opening  years  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  chief 
basilicas  were  almost  deserted  even  on  festivals ;  the 
offices  of  Good  Friday,  so  full  of  symbolism  and 
depth,  were  performed  "  in  an  irreverent  manner,  and 
replaced  by  a  mutilated  and  disfigured  office."  It  is 
Pope  John  XIX.  himself  who  says  so  in  1026. 

A  strong  desire  was  then  manifested  to  improve 
the  celebration  of  divine  service.  This  same  year, 
1026,  the  monk  Guy  of  Arezzo  was  sent  to  Rome, 
and  by  a  papal  bull  the  wretched  performance  of  the 
offices  of  Holy  Week  was  replaced  by  a  more  worthy 
ceremonial.  All  this  was  doubtless  in  preparation 
for  the  emperor's  coronation,  and  to  spare  him  the 
surprise  which  his  predecessor  St.  Henry  had  felt  when 
assisting  at  the  sacred  rites.  One  thing,  however,  is 
certain — the  text  and  arrangement  of  Guy  of  Arezzo's 
Antiphonary  must  have  led  to  innovations  in  Rome 
rather  than  to  the  preservation  of  the  traditional 
statu  quo.     That  it  was  so  appears  from  the  fact  that 

7 


98  The  Roman  Breviary 

Guy,  in  his  restoration  of  the  ancient  authentic  chant, 
permitted  "  enrichments "  in  the  shape  of  sequences 
and  tropes  which  were  much  thought  of  at  that  date. 
There  was  thus  a  restoration  effected  at  Rome  which 
must  have  attained  its  fullest  dimensions  and  attracted 
the  attention  all  during  the  pontificate  of  St. 
Gregory  VII. 

2.  Indeed  the  monk  Hildebrand,  when  he  became 
pope  (1073),  bethought  himself  of  the  reform  of  1026, 
of  which  he  had  doubtless  been  a  witness.  He  felt 
convinced  that,  in  order  to  purify  the  church  from 
the  Teutonic  leaven  and  bring  back  her  primitive 
magnificence,  it  was  necessary  to  establish  once  more 
the  ancient  Roman  rite,  and  to  this  object  he  devoted 
part  of  his  energies.  As  in  the  time  of  St.  Gregory 
the  Great,  the  main  difficulty  consisted  in  the  burden 
of  the  long  Matins  (Vigils).  Attempts  had  been 
made  to  render  this  burden  more  tolerable.  Thus  a 
custom  had  been  introduced  into  some  Roman 
churches  of  reciting  only  three  psalms  and  three 
lections.1  Gregory  VII.  seized  the  opportunity  of 
expressing  his  disapproval  of  this  new  practice  at  his 
first  Lenten  Synod  which  met  in  1074.  He 
commanded  the  resumption  of  the  practice  described 
in  part  by  Amalarius,  i.e.,  on  ferias,  twelve  psalms  and 
three  lections ;  on  festivals,  nine  psalms  and  nine 
lections  ;  on  Sundays  throughout  the  year,  eighteen 

1  M.  Batiffol,  p.  172,  note  2  (Eng.  trans.),  quotes  a  passage 
from  St.  Peter  Damian  referring  to  this  practice. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century    99 

psalms  and  nine  lections.  During  the  octaves  of 
Easter  and  Pentecost,  when  much  time  was  occupied 
with  the  administration  of  baptism,  three  psalms  and 
three  lections  only  were  recited.  At  the  Lenten 
Synod  of  1078,  St.  Gregory  VII.  put  an  end  to 
another  abuse  opposed  to  the  true  tradition  of  the 
Roman  church.  This  consisted  in  observing  the 
Embertides  in  the  first  week  of  March,  the  second 
of  June,  the  third  of  September,  and  the  fourth  of 
December.  Gregory  found  fault  with  this  custom, 
which  was  quite  unauthorized,  and  ordained  once  for 
all  that  the  Ember  days  were  to  be  observed  in  the 
first  week  of  Lent  and  in  Whit  week.  His  decision 
was  founded  upon  the  practice  of  the  pontiffs  his 
predecessors,  as  we  find  described  in  the  Liber 
Pontificalis.  Gregory  VII.  was  animated  by  the  same 
spirit  when  he  suppressed  the  Mozarabic  liturgy,  and 
decided  that  the  feasts  of  the  popes  who  were  martyrs 
should  be  celebrated  as  doubles  throughout  the 
church.  Thus  this  pope,  in  the  midst  of  the  grave 
problems  which  then  presented  themselves,  and  while 
he  was  occupied  with  most  important  political  trans- 
actions, found  time  and  leisure  to  attend  to  liturgical 
details.  The  restoration  of  the  Roman  liturgy  formed 
an  element  in  his  general  policy.  He  laboured  to 
revive  Roman  usages  in  opposition  to  the  invasion 
of  innovations  from  without. 

3.  The  conflict  with    the   secular   power  was  con- 
tinued   after   Gregory's    death,    but    his    immediate 


ioo  The  Roman  Breviary 

successors,  Cluniacs  or  Burgundians  rather  than 
Romans,  did  not  show  an  equal  zeal  in  advancing  the 
regeneration  of  Rome  in  matters  affecting  the  liturgy 
and  discipline.  There  is  nothing,  then,  astonishing  in 
the  fact  that  some  years  later,  about  1140,  Abelard 
should  say  that  the  ancient  Roman  ordo  of  the  divine 
office  was  followed  in  the  Lateran  basilica  alone,  while 
all  the  other  churches  had  adopted  a  modernized 
office.  This  evidence  is  important,  showing  as  it  does 
that  the  office  then  performed  in  the  papal  chapel 
inside  the  Lateran  palace  differed  from  that  performed 
in  the  great  patriarchal  basilica  adjoining  the  palace. 
From  a  ceremonial  drawn  up  by  the  canon,  Benedict, 
before  1 143,  it  appears  that  great  things  were  expected 
from  the  new  state  of  things  consequent  upon  the 
return  to  Rome  of  Innocent  II.  Indeed,  from  Urban 
II.,  the  popes  and  their  court  were  for  the  most  part 
elsewhere  than  in  the  Eternal  City,  and  thus  the 
divergences  between  the  Use  of  the  papal  chapel  and 
the  office  of  the  Lateran  basilica  became  more  marked. 
The  canon  Benedict's  ceremonial  soon  became  im- 
practicable :  it  is  doubtful  if  it  was  followed  for  more 
than  a  year  by  the  curia  in  the  performance  of  its 
office.  When  the  papal  court  was  in  exile  there 
were  no  longer  fixed  rules  depending  upon  times, 
place,  and  tradition  for  the  conduct  of  papal  functions. 
Even  in  Rome,  the  pope's  absence  must  have  lessened 
the  authority  and  importance  of  the  rites  performed 
11  without  the  pope,"  and  the  influence  which  they  had 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  101 

exercised  upon  other  churches.  Henceforth  it  was 
the  usages  of  the  curia  (Consuetudo  capellce  papalis) 
which  laid  down  the  law  for  a  papal  function.  But 
the  curia  was  no  longer  fixed  in  Rome,  but  wherever 
the  pope  might  happen  to  be.  A  vain  attempt  was 
made  during  the  residence  of  the  popes  in  Rome 
from  1 1 87  to  1 198  to  restore  the  ceremonial  of  the 
Roman  church  in  accordance  with  ancient  tradition 
{Ordo  Romanus  XII  written  by  Cardinal  Cencius 
under  Celestine  III.).1  The  ritual  of  the  papal 
chapel  attained  an  independent  position  of  its  own, 
and  became  the  preponderating  factor  in  the  history 
of  the  Roman  Breviary. 

Section  3. — The  Roman  Breviary  in  the 
Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth  Centuries 

I.  History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Roman 
Breviary. 

Raoul  of  Tongres,  a  writer  at  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  gives  us  the  following  information 
concerning  what  was  done  by  the  papal  chapel  or 
Roman  curia :  "  Either  by  order  of  the  pontiff  or 
upon  their  own  initiative,  the  clergy  constantly 
shorten  the  office,  and  sometimes  modify  it  to  suit 
the  convenience  of  the  cardinals."  This  author  knew 
what  he  was  talking  about,  for  he  was  able  to  compare 
a  copy  of  the  Roman  office  of  the  time  of  Innocent 
1  See  the  ordo  in  Migne,  Pair,  Lat.,  lxxviii.  1063-1106. 


102  The  Roman  Breviary 

III.  (1198-1216)  with  the  ceremonial  of  Peter  Amelius, 
the  Ordo  Romanus  X  V.,  still  used  in  his  own  day  in 
the  papal  chapel.1 

This  form  of  the  Roman  office  owed  its  success  and 
its  universal  extension  to  the  recently  founded  order 
of  the  Friars  Minor,  who  at  once  adopted  it.  As  they 
were  bound  to  devote  themselves  to  external  works, 
to  preaching  and  ministering  to  souls,  it  was  only 
natural  they  should  choose  an  abridged  office.  So 
they  adopted  the  Breviary  of  the  Roman  curia,  save 
that  instead  of  the  Roman  psalter — St.  Jerome's  first 
revision,  which  kept  close  to  the  old  Itala — they  em- 
ployed the  Gallican — St.  Jerome's  second  revision.2 
Other  modifications  soon  followed  as  circumstances 
required.  Either  in  obedience  to  the  command  or 
with  the  approval  of  Gregory  IX.  (1227-1241), 
Haymon,  general  of  the  Franciscans,  undertook  the 
revision  and  correction  of  the  Breviary  of  the  Roman 
curia,  which  Nicholas  III.  (1277-1280),  himself  a 
Franciscan,  appointed  to  be  used  in  all  the  churches 
of  Rome.3  It  appears,  notwithstanding,  that  the 
Lateran  remained  faithful  to  its  ancient  office,  for, 
later  on,  Pope  Gregory  XI.  (1370- 1378),  when  draw- 
ing up  the  statutes  for  the  canons  who  formed  the 
Lateran  chapter,  states  that  "  the  members  should 
agree  with  the  head,  and  that,  in  the  church  of  the 
Lateran,  the  day  and  night  offices  ought  to  be  sung 

1  Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  lxxviii.  1 273-1 367. 

2  For  the  Gallican  psalter,  see  above,  p.  63.         3  Addenda,  I. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  103 

according  to  the  rubric,  order,  and  usage  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Church  or  of  the  chapel  of  our  Lord  Pope." 
This  is  the  first  official  declaration  enjoining  the  ordo 
of  the  Roman  curia  as  the  usage  of  the  holy  Roman 
church.  Henceforth,  and  especially  after  the  exile 
at  Avignon,  the  ancient  Roman  office  came  to  be 
regarded  as  out  of  date.  The  office  according  to  the 
ordo  of  the  holy  Roman  church,  as  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi  calls  it,  meant  nothing  else  than  the  usage  of 
the  curia.  The  history  of  the  substitution  passed  out 
of  men's  minds,  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  the  common  opinion  that  the  Franciscans 
alone  followed  the  ordo  of  the  holy  Roman  church. 

Raoul  of  Tongres  states  quite  simply  that  the 
Franciscans  adopted  the  usage  of  the  curia  or  office 
of  the  papal  chapel.  This  he  substantiates  by  pass- 
ing in  review  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  in  his  zeal  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  purity  of  the  liturgy,  he 
passes  over  nothing  of  importance  bearing  upon  the 
subject.  His  chief  complaints  against  the  new 
Franciscan  books  are  as  follows :  (A)  Shortening, 
alteration,  or  suppression  of  lections.  Instead  of  the 
sermons,  homilies,  and  passions  of  the  saints,  the 
Friars  Minor  often  read  only  a  short  passage  from 
the  chronicle  of  Damasus,  or  from  the  Liber  Pontifi- 
calis.  (B)  The  Franciscans  have  always  nine  lections 
for  all  their  saints,  and  for  each  day  within  the  chief 
octaves,  entirely  omitting  all  feasts  of  three  lections. 
Hence  arises  great  confusion  from  the  transference  of 


104  The  Roman  Breviary 

so  many  feasts  arbitrarily  raised  by  them  to  a  higher 
rank.  (C)  Their  arrangement  suppressed  almost  en- 
tirely the  reading  of  Holy  Scripture  in  the  office,  the 
legends  of  saints  were  spread  over  nine  lections,  and 
were  even  drawn  upon  for  the  text  of  the  little  chapters. 
Thus  the  Franciscans  went  far  beyond  the  reform 
effected  by  the  Roman  curia,  pushing  its  plan  of 
simplification  to  greater  lengths,  shortening  the  lections 
until  only  three  or  four  lines  remained.  It  must  be 
said  in  their  defence  that,  as  a  rule,  if  not  always, 
these  Breviaries  with  exceedingly  short  lections  were 
reserved  for  use  on  journeys  or  the  private  recita- 
tion of  office,  since  it  was  then  impossible  to  carry 
great  choir  books  about  with  one.  The  result  of  the 
multiplication  of  festivals  of  nine  lections,  and  of 
raising  the  days  within  octaves  to  the  rank  of  doubles, 
was  to  render  the  recitation  of  the  ferial  office  very 
infrequent,  and  to  make  the  recitation  of  the  psalter 
within  the  week  an  impossibility.1  While  leaving  the 
contents  of  the  Breviary  unchanged,  the  way  in  which 
the  office  was  recited  was  modified.  From  hence- 
forth the  office  as  recited    by  the    Franciscans   con- 

1  Until  the  twelfth  century,  the  term  octave  meant  in  the 
Roman  rite  that  a  simple  commemoration  of  the  feast  was  made 
in  the  office  of  the  eighth  day.  On  the  days  within  the  octave 
(dies  i7ifra  octava7)i)  there  was  no  mention  in  the  office  of  either 
the  feast  or  the  octave.  We  have  an  example  of  this  still  in  the 
Roman  Breviary  with  regard  to  St.  Agnes.  Her  feast  is  cele- 
brated on  the  2  ist  January,  and  on  the  28th  it  is  mentioned  only 
at  Vespers  and  Lauds,  and  in  the  ninth  lection  at  Matins.  The 
name  in  ancient  Roman  service-books  is  Octava  S.  Agnetis. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  105 

sisted  for  the  most  part  in  the  common  of  saints  with 
lections  taken  from  their  legends,  and  an  important 
part  of  the  Breviary  fell  practically  into  disuse. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  parallel  tendency 
which  led  to  a  contrary  result.  While  some  wished 
to  simplify  and  curtail  the  Roman  office,  others 
speedily  made  new  additions  to  it.  Additional  offices 
began  to  make  their  appearance — De  Beata  Maria 
Virgine  and  Defunctorum — then  special  prayers,  such 
as  the  penitential  and  gradual  psalms,  finally  metrical 
hymns,  short  concluding  prayers  such  as  the  Com- 
memoratio  S.  Cruets  and  the  Suffragia  Sanctorum. 
The  metrical  hymns,  so  highly  esteemed  in  Milan  in 
St.  Ambrose's  day,  and  prescribed  by  St.  Benedict 
in  his  arrangement  of  the  office,  fell  for  a  time  into 
disfavour.  Spain  long  refused  to  admit  them.  They 
were  disapproved  of  in  the  Carolingian  empire  when 
the  Roman  office  was  introduced.  Hence  it  followed 
that  for  a  long  period  they  were  not  used  in  the 
Roman  basilicas,  although  the  monks  who  served  in 
these  churches  recited  them  in  the  office  of  their  own 
monasteries.  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
some  feeble  and  arbitrary  attempts  were  made  in 
Rome  to  revive  the  ancient  office.  The  other  additions 
just  referred  to  are  almost  without  exception  non- 
Roman.  From  the  ordos  of  the  Cluniacs,  Carthusians, 
Cistercians,  they  found  their  way  into  the  "  ordines 
romani"  after  the  constitution  of  Gregory  XI.  (1370- 
1378).     The  piety  of  individual  priests  and  religious 


106  The  Roman  Breviary 

added  yet  other  offices,  such  as  those  of  All  Saints, 
the  Holy  Cross,  the  Holy  Spirit,  etc.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  these  additions  (with  the  exception 
of  the  Quicumque  and  some  of  the  hymns)  are  merely 
artificial  adjuncts,  having  but  slight  connection  with 
the  ancient  office  ;  they  are  no  integral  part  of  it,  but 
are  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Breviary  as  a  sort  of 
appendix,  and  can  be  separated  from  it  without  dis- 
locating the  different  parts  which  compose  the  ancient 
contents  of  the  book.1 

II.  The  Breviary  in  the  Thirteenth  Century. 

Notwithstanding  the  abridgements  and  simplifica- 
tions of  which  we  have  spoken,  the  liturgical  office 
which  the  great  men  of  the  patristic  period  bequeathed 
to  the  church  seems  to  have  remained  intact  as  a 
whole.  The  Roman  curia  and  the  Franciscans  had 
only  made  it  shorter  and  more  definite.2  Dom 
Gueranger3  states  that  there  is  perhaps  some  bitter- 
ness and  sharpness  in  the  reproaches  which  Raoul 
of  Tongres  casts  upon  the  Franciscans. 

(a)  As  far  as  the  Antiphonary  is  concerned,  it  does 
not  seem  that  they  made  much  change :  "  In  the 
liturgical  collection  of  Blessed  Tommasi,"  says  Dom 
Gueranger,  "there  is  an  Antiphonary  written  in  the 
reign   of  Alexander    III.    (1159).     Now    this    book, 

1  For  the  details,  see  Dom  Baumer,  vol.  ii.  pp.  39-46. 

2  Dom  Baumer,  vol.  ii.  p.  57. 

3  hist.  Liturgy  i.  p.  324. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Foztrteenth  Century  107 

which  contains  the  office  as  curtailed  by  St.  Gregory 
VII.,  is  almost  identical  with  the  existing  Roman 
Breviary,  which  in  its  turn  is  both  the  abridgement  of 
the  Gregorian  Antiphonary  and  the  Franciscan 
Breviary.  Therefore  the  Franciscan  collection  left 
the  Gregorian  foundation  untouched." 

(b)  The  psalter  retains  its  ancient  traditional  division 
intact  for  the  canonical  hours  throughout  the  week 
{i.e.  nine  or  ten  psalms  for  Prime  on  Sundays) ;  the 
structure  of  the  office,  with  its  well  thought-out  co- 
herence, and  its  succession  of  psalms,  antiphons,  hymns, 
versicles,  lections,  responses,  and  prayers,  is  plainly  to 
be  seen.  Therefore  the  Ordo  Romanus  XI.  can  say  : 
"  Sicut  mos  est,  sicut  Ecclesia  consuevit." x 

(c)  The  Canonical  Hours: — The  arrangement  of 
psalms  at  Matins  is  the  same  as  at  present.  Fre- 
quently the  whole  passage  forming  the  gospel  for  the 
festival  was  sung.  The  name  of  this  office  underwent  a 
change.  The  term  Vigilice  formerly  given  to  it  was  re- 
stricted to  the  first  Matins  of  festivals  (i.e.  to  the  office 
of  the  feria) ;  the  Matins  of  the  festival  itself  were  called 
Matutinum.  Lauds  were  still  called  Matutince  Laudes, 
but  later  began  to  be  called  simply  Laudes.  In  Advent, 
Matins  were  richer  than  at  present.  The  responds 
Aspiciens,  Aspiciebam,  Missus  est  had  several  versicles. 
The  Gloria,  Te  Deum,  and  the  Gloria  in  excelsis  at 
Mass  were  sung  in  Rome  on  the  Sundays  in  Advent. 

1  Cf.  Mabillon,  Museum  Italicum.  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxviii. 
951-954. 


108  The  Roman  Breviary 

Lauds  were  very  often  shortened  by  reciting  all  the 
psalms  under  one  antiphon.  With  the  exception  of 
Saturday,  when  the  Officium  de  Beata  V.M.  was  re- 
cited, there  was  a  daily  commemoration  of  our  Lady  ; 
during  the  paschal  period  a  commemoration  of  the 
Passion  and  of  the  Resurrection.  Raoul  of  Tongres 
shows  that  the  concluding  antiphons  of  our  Lady — 
Alma,  Ave  Regina,  Regina  Cceli,  and  Salve  Regina — 
formed  at  this  time  no  essential  part  of  the  office.  It 
was  only  in  1239  that  Gregory  IX.  ordered  the  recita- 
tion of  the  Salve  Regina  on  Fridays  after  Compline. 
The  custom  of  interpolating  antiphons  after  each  verse 
of  the  Benedicite  and  Benedictus  on  Sundays  and 
festivals — known  as  triumphare  antiphonas — was  given 
up.  There  was  no  difference  between  the  little  hours 
as  recited  in  the  twelfth  century  and  in  the  preceding 
period.  RaouPs  only  complaint  is  that  the  custom 
has  commenced  of  suppressing  the  five  or  six  psalms 
(20-26)  which  ought  to  have  been  recited  on  Sundays 
in  addition  to  the  ordinary  psalms  {i.e.  psalm  53,  the 
commencement  of  psalm  118,  and  Confitemini).  The 
omissions  at  Vespers  were  of  no  importance.  On 
Sundays  and  festivals,  the  five  psalms  of  the  first 
vespers  were  almost  always  sung  under  one  antiphon, 
as  is  still  done  during  the  paschal  season.  The 
Magnificat  was  no  longer  chanted  "  triumphaliter" 
with  a  great  number  of  antiphons.  Compline  was 
almost  the  same  as  at  present.  The  lection,  Fratres 
sobrii  estote,  was  varied  according  to  the  festival.     The 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  109 

order  followed  was  Confiteor,  Converte  nos,  Deus  in 
adjutorium,  four  psalms,  a  hymn  which  varied  with  the 
season,  chapter,  respond  and  versicle,  antiphon  and 
canticle,  Kyrie  eleison,  Pater  and  Credo  with  versicles, 
except  on  great  feasts,  the  collect  Illumina\  the 
benediction,  and,  in  choir,  the  aspersion  with  versicle 
and  collect  Exaudi  nos. 

(d)  We  have  seen  already  that  the  amount  of  altera- 
tion in  the  lections  was  more  considerable.  As  we 
learn  from  the  rules  of  St.  Benedict  and  St.  Caesarius 
and  the  Ordines  Romani  XL  and  XII ,  the  ruler  of 
the  choir  used  formerly  to  arrange  the  lections  as  he 
thought  fit.  It  was  thought  sufficient  to  point  out 
the  book  to  be  read.  Along  with  the  new  custom  of 
shortening  the  lections,  there  came  in  also  the  custom 
of  definitely  indicating  the  verses  of  Scripture,  or  the 
passage  from  the  sermons,  homilies,  and  legends  which 
were  to  form  the  lection. 

In  order  to  give  more  space  to  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
the  lections  of  the  second  nocturn  on  Sundays  were 
allotted  to  them.  St.  Bernard  and  Raoul  of  Tongres 
inform  us  that  the  books  of  Scripture  commenced  in 
the  church  were  to  be  continued  in  the  refectory,  as 
is  still  done  in  some  monasteries. 

(e)  The  inconvenience  arising  from  the  increase  of 
festivals  can  only  be  understood  by  a  study  of  the 
change  effected  during  the  period  with  which  we  are 
now  concerned.  Hitherto  the  festivals  of  saints,  which 
were  much  less  numerous,  as  well  as  the  feasts  of  our 


no  The  Roman  Breviary 

Lord,  falling  on  the  average  once  a  week,  had  an 
office  in  addition  to  the  office  de  tempore  \  i.e.  Matins 
and  Lauds  were  duplicated,  once  for  the  feria  and 
once  for  the  feast.  The  former  were  usually  said  on 
the  eve  a  little  after  sunset,1  and  were  composed  of 
three  psalms,  with  antiphons  and  versicles,  but  no 
invitatory,  three  lections  with  responds,  and  the  Te 
Deum  or  Te  decet  laus.  The  second  Matins  and 
Lauds  were  recited  towards  midnight.  According  to 
the  Ordo  Romanus  XL  of  the  canon  Benedict,  this 
custom  is  accounted  for  at  Rome  by  the  fact  that  the 
two  offices  were  not  to  be  recited  by  one  and  the  same 
choir,  one  being  recited  by  the  canons  of  the  church 
to  which  the  pope  had  proceeded  in  order  to  hold 
his  chapel  there,  and  the  other  by  the  pope  and 
cardinals.  As  feasts  with  two  offices,  we  may  name 
the  Nativity,  the  Epiphany,  Ascension,  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  Assumption,  and  the  feasts  of  the  local 
Patron  Saints.  The  existing  Matins  for  these  festi- 
vals, according  to  the  Ordo  Romanus  XL,  are  made 
up  from  the  double  Matins  of  this  earlier  period,2  a 
fact  which  accounts  for  the  absence  of  the  invitatory 
on  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany.  This  custom,  however, 
seems  to  have  been  peculiar  to  Rome,  for  nowhere 
else  do  we  hear  of  a  double  office  being  imposed  as 

1  It  has  been  thought  that  in  this  we  have  the  origin  of  anti- 
cipating Matins  and  Lauds  of  the  morrow  by  reciting  them  the 
evening  before. 

2  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxviii.  1029  and  103 1. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  1 1 1 

of  obligation.  The  Roman  curia  first,  and  then  the 
Franciscans,  began  to  fuse  the  two  offices  into  one 
organic  whole.  The  little  hours  did  not  change  their 
fixed  psalms  and  hymns  on  festivals,  but  at  the 
greater  hours  the  psalms  and  hymns  varied  with  the 
festival.  Thus,  by  introducing  the  special  prayers  and 
lections  of  the  feast,  or  by  simple  commemorations, 
the  festivals  of  the  saints  became,  as  it  were,  enshrined 
in  the  office  de  tempore.  As  festivals  increased,  the 
ferial  office  was  recited  more  rarely — a  circumstance 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  caused  distress  to  Raoul  of 
Tongres.  It  is  true  that  the  Franciscans  gave  an 
impetus  to  the  increase  of  festivals  in  the  calendar, 
but  Gregory  VII.  began  the  movement  by  deciding 
that  the  office  of  the  majority  of  canonized  popes 
should  be  celebrated  throughout  the  whole  church. 
After  him,  other  festivals  were  thus  extended,  two  of 
which  deserve  to  be  mentioned,  as  both  had  previously 
given  rise  to  controversies — the  feast  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  and  the  feast  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 
The  feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  established  at  Liege 
in  the  tenth  century,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  it  en- 
countered from  Leo  IX.  and  Alexander  II.,  was 
adopted  in  widely  distant  parts  of  the  church,  and 
was  extended  to  the  whole  church  by  Pope  John  XXII. 
before  1334.  According  to  recent  investigations,  the 
festival  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  originated  in 
the  Benedictine  monasteries  of  England,  and  was 
sanctioned  by  a  council  of  English  bishops  held  at 


1 1 2  The  Roman  Breviary 

London  in  1129.1  It  early  became  popular  in 
Normandy,  and  was  instituted  at  Lyons  about  1140, 
when  it  gave  rise  to  objections  on  the  part  of  St. 
Bernard.  It  spread  throughout  France,  and  was 
adopted  in  Rome  in  1246,  and  in  1476  was  extended 
to  the  universal  church  by  Pope  Sixtus  IV.2  The 
office  was  copied  from  that  of  the  Nativity  of  Our 
Lady,  the  word  Nativitas  being  replaced  by  Con- 
ceptio. 

III.  The   Roman  Breviary  during  the  Thirteenth 
and  Fourteenth  Centuries. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Franciscans  gladly  availed 
themselves  of  the  shortened  office  of  the  Roman  curia, 
while  they,  in  turn,  made  this  office  still  more  accept- 
able to  the  clergy  of  the  papal  court  by  the  simplifica- 
tion and  the  portable  form  which  they  tended  to  give 
to  it.  It  is  this  reciprocal  influence  which  forms  the 
most  striking  feature  in  the  liturgical  development  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  In  1227  the  Synod  of  Trier 
prescribed  the  use  of  a  small  Breviary  for  ecclesiastics 
when  travelling,  "  Breviaria  sua  in  quibus  possint  horas 
suas  legere,  quando  sunt  in  itinere."  These  volumes 
were  called  porteforiay  portues,  viatica  when  adapted 
for  travelling;  cameraria  when  used  in  private 
apartments.  Such  a  book  was  necessary  for  a  friar 
minor  always  occupied  in  preaching  from  place  to 
place,  and  unable  from  his  many  occupations  to 
1  Addenda,  II.  ■  Addenda,  III. 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  i  13 

celebrate  the  office  in  choir.  It  was  equally  necessary 
for  the  episcopal  schools  under  their  changed  condi- 
tions, for  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  ancient 
monastic  schools,  where  clerks  and  scholars  shared 
in  the  whole  divine  office,  and  joined  in  the  liturgical 
life  of  the  monastery  in  the  choir,  at  the  same  time 
as  they  pursued  their  studies,  were  no  longer  in 
existence.  It  was  also  the  sort  of  book  required  at 
the  universities,  where  a  feverish  activity  allowed  the 
young  clerks  and  theological  students  no  leisure 
for  assisting  at  the  long  divine  office  celebrated  in 
the  ancient  manner  in  the  cathedrals.  The  new 
generation  had  to  content  itself  with  a  small  portable 
volume  containing  the  parts  indispensable  for  the 
fulfilment  of  their  obligation,  and  facilitating  the 
rapid  discharge  of  the  daily  pensum  of  official  prayer, 
and  this  they  found  in  the  Breviary  of  the  Roman 
curia  adopted  by  the  Franciscans. 

Under  Innocent  III.,  or  about  his  time  {i.e.  between 
1 192  and  1230),  further  modifications  were  introduced, 
as  may  be  seen  from  a  comparison  of  the  Ordo 
Romanics  XL  of  the  canon  Benedict  and  the  Ordo 
Romanus  XII.  of  Cardinal  Cencius.  The  Te  Deum 
was  suppressed  for  Advent  Sunday.1  The  long 
prayers  and  the  penitential  and  gradual  psalms  were 
to  be  recited  only  during  Lent. 

Gregory   IX.    (1227-1241)   ordered    the   recital    or 

chanting    of    the    Salve    Regina    on    Fridays    after 

1  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  lxxviii.  1063. 

8 


1 1 4  The  Roman  Breviary 

Compline,  and  also  took  part  in  the  composition  of 
the  office  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  Then,  during 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  a  number 
of  festivals  hitherto  restricted  to  Rome  became 
universal ;  i.e.  SS.  Vincent  and  Anastasius,  22nd 
January ;  the  Apparition  of  St.  Michael,  8th  May  ; 
Our  Lady  of  the  Snows,  8th  August ;  the  Dedication 
of  the  Lateran  basilica  of  the  Saviour,  9th  November ; 
the  Dedication  of  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's,  13th 
November,  etc.  Saints  of  the  Francisan  order  were 
honoured  in  the  calendar  by  festivals  much  higher  in 
rank  than  those  of  the  ancient  Saints.  Accordingly, 
the  Breviaries  secundum  usum  romance  curice  belonging 
to  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  give  the 
festival  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  with  a  privileged 
octave,  and  they  have  also  octaves  for  the  translation 
of  St.  Francis  and  St.  Clare,  St.  Bernardine,  and  many 
others.  The  festival  of  Corpus  Christi,  too,  belongs 
to  the  thirteenth  century,  having  been  instituted  by 
Urban  IV.  in  1264.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  wrote  the 
office  for  the  feast,  so  remarkable  for  its  style  and 
theological  exactitude. 

In  1298,  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  ordered  that  the  festi- 
vals of  all  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists  and  of  the 
four  great  Doctors  of  the  Latin  church — SS.  Ambrose, 
Jerome,  Augustine,  Gregory  the  Great — should  be 
celebrated  throughout  the  whole  church  as  doubles. 
In  1389,  Urban  VI.  added  the  feast  of  the  Visitation. 
For  the  fifteenth  century  one  may  mention  the  feast 


Charlemagne  to  End  of  Fourteenth  Century  1 1 5 

of  the  Seven  Dolours  in  1423,  which  was  celebrated  in 
Cologne  and  Germany  before  being  inserted  into 
the  calendar  of  the  universal  church  ;  the  feast  of 
the  Transfiguration,  instituted  by  Calixtus  III.  in 
1457  ;  the  feast  of  the  Presentation  of  our  Blessed 
Lady,  sanctioned  for  Germany  in  1464  by  Paul  II. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  leave  the  thirteenth 
century  without  saying  something  about  one  branch 
of  liturgical  poetry — the  metrical  office-hymns.  Fr. 
Dreves  has  published  a  large  number  of  these 
compositions  in  his  Analecta  Hyrnnica,  which  can 
thus  be  made  the  subject  of  further  studies.  The 
examination  that  he  has  made  of  the  subject  has  led 
him  to  the  conclusion  that  these  productions  first 
began  to  appear  in  the  twelfth  century.  But  it 
seems  their  origin  may  be  pushed  even  further  back, 
for  there  exists  a  metrical  office-hymn  of  the  tenth 
century.  The  office  for  the  feast  of  the  Lance  and 
Nails  in  the  Roman  Breviary  gives  an  idea  of  this 
kind  of  composition. 

The  frequent  disturbances,  political,  ecclesiastical, 
and  social,  of  the  fourteenth  century,  have  left  their 
traces  in  the  liturgy.  The  sojourn  of  the  popes  at 
Avignon,  known  as  the  Babylonian  exile  on  account 
of  its  duration  (1305-1378),  was  from  our  point  of 
view,  as  well  as  from  others,  productive  of  unfortunate 
results.  It  left  indelible  traces  upon  the  history  of 
the  church ;  and  since  the  liturgy  is  closely  bound 
up  with  the  facts  of  history,  we  can  infer  its  fortunes 


1 1 6  The  Roman  Breviary 

during  this  period.  The  canonical  hours  could  not  fail 
to  be  modified  by  the  fact  that  the  Lateran  basilica, 
the  mother  church  and  mistress  of  the  Catholic  world, 
was  no  longer  the  usual  scene  of  the  pontifical  office. 
There  were  no  Roman  basilicas  in  Avignon.  In  com- 
parison with  St.  Peter's,  the  Lateran,  St.  Paul's,  St. 
Mary  Major,  the  church  within  which  the  liturgical 
functions  of  the  papal  court  had  to  be  performed  was 
no  better  than  a  temporary  chapel.  The  ceremonies 
must  needs  be  curtailed,  the  sacred  text  cut  short,  and 
the  magnificent  ritual  reduced,  just  what  the  Ordines 
Romani  of  that  date  show  actually  to  have  taken 
place. 

The  Ordo  Romanus  XIV.  shows  how  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  papal  court  had  the  effect  of  reducing  the 
splendour  of  the  liturgy,  while  the  calendar  was  en- 
riched by  the  addition  of  a  large  number  of  feasts 
and  saints  which  had  hitherto  been  of  merely  local 
observance.  Such,  for  example,  were  the  festivals  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  St.  Martial,  St.  Giles,  St.  Anne. 
From  this  period  dates  the  definite  separation 
between  the  rite  of  the  Roman  curia  and  the  rite  of 
the  basilicas  of  Rome,  the  former  drifting  away  ever 
further  from  the  latter,  and  exhibiting  more  and 
more  its  own  poverty. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ROMAN  BREVIARY  FROM  THE  END  OF  THE 
FOURTEENTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  MIDDLE  OF 
THE   SIXTEENTH 

BEFORE  bringing  to  a  conclusion  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Breviary  during  this  second  period,  we  must 
briefly  examine  the  effect  of  the  schism  of  the  West 
on  the  liturgy,  and  the  attempts  at  reform  which 
preceded  the  Council  of  Trent. 

Section  i. — The  Effects  of  the  Schism. 

i.   The  Liturgy  in  general : — The  consequences  of 

the   schism  were  deplorable  as    far   as  the  liturgy  is 

concerned.     As  we  have  said,  it  was  impossible  for 

the  liturgy  to  be  performed  in  a  manner  worthy  of 

itself    at   the   pontifical    court    of  Avignon.      When 

Christendom  was   divided  into   two  obediences,  the 

liturgical  functions  at  Avignon  were  at  times  even 

ridiculous,  as  may  be  seen  from  reading,  for  example, 

in    the    Gesta  Benedicti  XIII.1   the   account   of  the 

celebration  of  the  Purification. 

1  Muratori,  Rerum  italicarum  scrip/ores,  iii.  177  and  800. 
117 


1 1 8  The  Roman  Breviary 

Still,  Peter  de  Luna  was  one  of  those  who  attached 
the  greatest  importance  to  the  observance  of  the 
liturgy  during  this  melancholy  period.  Things  were 
little  better  even  in  Rome.  The  167th  chapter  of 
the  Ordo  Romanus  X  V.  gives  us  to  understand  that 
the  cardinals  were  anything  but  easy  to  manage, 
and  showed  great  disinclination  to  take  part  in  the 
ceremonies  of  the  divine  office  whenever  an  order 
of  the  pope  or  master  of  ceremonies  did  not  suit  their 
convenience.1  It  was  inevitable  that  the  text,  the 
rites,  and  the  formulas  of  prayers  should  suffer  in 
consequence.  A  papal  decision  called  forth  by 
particular  circumstances  could  easily  be  transformed 
into  a  universal  law.  Thus,  Pope  Urban  VI.,  in  1389, 
having  celebrated  the  festival  of  the  Beheading  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist  on  a  Sunday,  and  so  displaced 
the  Sunday  office,  it  soon  became  an  established  rule 
that  a  feast,  with  certain  responds  proper  to  itself, 
like  that  of  the  29th  August,  was  to  take  precedence 
of  the  Sunday  (see  the  Ordo  Romanus  XV.,  ch.  124).2 
The  special  object  of  the  Ordo  Romanus  XV.  is  not 
to  set  out  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  ceremonial 
performed  at  the  papal  curia,  but  to  give  a  series  of 
notes  on  how  this  ceremonial  was  carried  out  under 
such  and  such  a  pope  under  given  circumstances. 
Just  because  Rome  laid  down  no  hard  and  fast  rules, 
many  local  churches,  in  adopting  the  Breviary  of  the 

1  Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  lxxviii.  1368. 

2  Ibid.,  lxxviii.  1344. 


Fro7n  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth  Century    119 

curia,  continued  at  the  same  time  to  keep  to  their 
ancient  customs  and  their  ancient  liturgical  texts. 
Thus  the  offices  of  national  or  local  saints  were 
introduced  into  the  setting  of  the  new  Roman  office, 
while  customs  belonging  to  particular  localities  found 
their  way  into  the  office  de  tempore  and  into  the 
festivals  of  our  Lord. 

2.  Lastly,  the  recitation  of  the  canonical  hours  was 
attended  with  much  uncertainty  and  disorder.  No 
one  knew  exactly  what  rule  to  follow,  and  everyone 
set  about  drawing  up  an  ordo  according  to  his  own 
ideas.  An  edict  of  Pope  Clement  VI.  gave  rise  to  a 
new  regulation,  according  to  which  a  great  number 
of  saints,  who  had  hitherto  been  commemorated  by  a 
memorial  only,  had  now  an  office  of  their  own,  and 
also  certain  festivals  gained  the  privilege  of  being 
transferred  when  necessary.1  Thus,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  we  find  the  beginnings  of  those  abuses  of 
which  the  theologian  John  de  Arze,  consultor  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  was  to  complain  later  on.  An 
enumeration  of  these  abuses  shows  into  what  a 
condition  the  divine  office  had  fallen : — 

(1)  The  suppression  almost  entirely  of  the  Sunday 
and  ferial  offices ;  the  consequent  impossibility  of 
reciting  the  psalter  in  the  course  of  a  week  ;  the  total 
omission  of  certain  psalms. 

(2)  The  multiplication   of  different  offices  on    the 

1  Ordo  Romanus  X  V.y  ch.  101  and  123.  Migne,  Patr.  Lat '., 
lxxviii.  1339,  1344. 


120  The  Roman  Breviary 

same  day,  throwing  into  the  shade  the  chief  features 
of  the  special  celebration,  and  interfering  with  the 
pleasure  which  might  have  been  given  by  the  simple 
office  de  Tempore.  It  has  to  be  remembered  that  the 
little  office  of  our  Lady,  the  office  for  the  Dead,  and 
the  penitential  or  gradual  psalms  regularly  followed 
the  ferial  office. 

(3)  The  substitution  of  legends,  apocryphal  stories, 
and  certain  other  texts  of  doubtful  value  for  Holy 
Scripture  in  the  antiphons,  hymns,  and  responds.1 

Doubtless,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  festivals 
of  saints  did  not  fail  to  benefit  those  who  had  to 
recite  the  Breviary  ;  still,  as  canonizations  became  very 
numerous  during  these  centuries,  as  may  be  seen  from 
a  study  of  the  Bullarium,  the  increase  in  festivals  must 
have  obscured  the  character  of  the  liturgical  year, 
which  represents  the  teaching,  sufferings,  and  triumph 
of  the  God-Man. 

Humanism,  which  we  shall  see  patronized  by  some 
popes,  such  as  Nicholas  V.  and  certain  of  his  successors, 
had  also  its  influence  upon  the  divine  office — an 
influence  not  always  conducive  to  piety.  The  super- 
natural beauty  of  the  formulas  was  imperilled  by  the 
rejection  of  the  rough  and  inelegant  form  in  which 
they  were  cast.  Attractiveness  of  outward  form  went 
for  everything,  no  importance  being  attached  to  what 
lay  beneath  the  surface ;  the  connection  between  the 

1  Compare  the  complaints  of  Raoul  of  Tongres  mentioned 
above,  p.  10 1. 


From  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth  Century    121 

natural  and  the  supernatural  was  disregarded  ;  a 
dislike  of  the  spiritual  nourishment  offered  by  the 
Holy  Scripture  became  general. 


Section  2. — Attempts  at  Reform  before  the 
Council  of  Trent 

I.  Efforts  made  by  the  Popes : — In  the  second  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century  a  new  era  seemed  to  dawn, 
in  which  Rome  was  to  be  the  centre  of  science,  art, 
and  religious  life.  The  attempts  of  Nicholas  V.  (1455) 
paved  the  way  for  a  revival  of  truly  Christian  life  in 
Italy  and  in  other  lands.  This  reform,  however,  was 
not  lasting.  Those  about  the  pope,  in  the  fear  of 
losing  their  benefices  if  abuses  were  abolished,  did  all 
they  could  to  place  obstacles  in  his  way.  Under 
Calixtus  III.  and  Pius  II.,  we  find  several  papal 
masters  of  ceremonies  who  carefully  collected  the 
traditions  of  a  better  age,  and  endeavoured  to  pre- 
serve them  intact.  Julius  II.  (1503-1513)  was  rather 
embarrassed  on  all  sides  by  wars  and  disturbances. 
Leo  X.  (15 1 3-1 521)  was  enthusiastic  for  pagan 
ideas.  Under  him,  whatever  was  done  in  the  way 
of  change  or  correction  is  sure  to  bear  the  stamp 
of  humanism.  Under  such  conditions,  the  attempts 
of  a  Nicholas  of  Cusa  and  a  Domenico  de  Domenichi 
are  all  the  more  deserving  of  praise.  These  men, 
moved  by  a  serious  enthusiasm  for  the  restoration  of 
the  liturgy,  proposed  certain    reforms,  and    drew  up 


122  The  Roman  Breviary 

schemes  for  the  more  correct  observance  of  the 
canonical  regulations,  and,  above  all,  for  celebrating 
the  canonical  hours  with  greater  dignity,  and  their 
attempts  produced  lasting  results.  The  care  shown 
by  Sixtus  IV.  for  the  solemn  celebration  of  the 
office  and  for  the  liturgical  chant  in  the  foundation 
of  the  Sistine  chapel  (1471-1481)  did  not  in  any  way 
affect  the  Breviary  or  the  office  in  itself. 

2.  Individual  Attempts  : — Two  currents,  to  which  a 
third  was  soon  added,  began  to  exert  themselves  in 
transforming  the  divine  office  —  the  humanist,  the 
traditional,  and  the  golden  mean.  A  word  must  be 
said  in  explanation  of  each  in  order  to  show  the 
character  of  the  attempts  made  at  this  time  to  reform 
the  liturgy. 

(a)  The  humanist  school,  represented  by  Bembo, 
Ferreri,  Marsilio  Ficino,  Pomponazzi,  Bessarion,  Leo 
X.,  considered  that  the  fault  of  the  Breviary  lay  in  its 
inelegant  language.  The  ideal  of  this  school  was  an 
office  book  written  in  Ciceronian  Latin,  with  hymns 
modelled  as  closely  as  possible  upon  the  odes  of 
Horace.  One  must  avoid,  Bembo  says  somewhere, 
"  maculam  illam  jam  per  tot  ssecula  illi  hominum 
generi  (priests  and  religious)  inustam  quod  scribendi 
non  calleat  elegantiam."  Accordingly,  certain  of  the 
higher  and  lower  clergy  began,  M  in  order  to  avoid 
spoiling  their  good  taste,"  to  recite  the  office  in  Greek, 
and  the  psalms  and  other  parts  in  Hebrew.  Ferreri 
undertook  the  correction  of  the  Breviary,  and  began 


From  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth   Century    123 

with  a  new  collection  of  hymns,  because,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  classic  ideals,  the  hymns  seemed  to 
be  the  part  of  the  Breviary  most  devoid  of  taste. 
Leo  X.,  who  had  suggested  this  undertaking,  and  en- 
couraged Ferreri  in  his  attempts,  did  not  live  long 
enough  to  see  the  work  completed.  It  appeared  in 
February  1525.  Everything  is  new:  nothing  of  the 
ancient  chants  is  preserved ;  a  few  obscure  remini- 
scences recall  slightly  the  ancient  hymns.     For  the 

old  verse 

Ave  maris  Stella 

Dei  Mater  alma 

Atque  semper  virgo 

Felix  cceli  porta, 
we  have — 

Ave,  superna  janua, 

Ave  beata  semita, 

Salus  periclitantibus 

Et  ursa  navigantibus. 

The  author  frequently,  and  with  an  almost  incredible 
naivete,  introduced  heathen  expressions,  allusions,  and 
types.  The  Holy  Trinity  is  called  triforme  numen 
Olympi\  of  our  blessed  Lady  it  is  said:  "  Belluam 
tristem  Phlegethontis  atri  interemisti,  superosque  nobis 
conciliasti."  True,  by  the  side  of  these,  we  find  some 
magnificent  strophes,  in  which  the  parables  and 
characters  of  Scripture,  the  characteristic  features  of 
the  lives  of  the  saints,  and  Christian  doctrines  and 
ideas  shine  out  like  precious  stones  in  the  setting  of 
classical  phraseology  in  which  they  are  placed.     Dom 


124  The  Roman  Breviary 

Gueranger1  singles  out  as  especially  simple  and 
beautiful  the  hymn  for  the  common  of  Apostles  and 
Evangelists  : — 

Gaudete  mundi  principes 
Qui  veritatis  dogmate 
Vita  profusa  et  sanguine 
Plantastis  omnem  ecclesiam. 

The  use  of  the  new  hymns  was  allowed  by  Clement 
VII.  in  the  private  recitation  of  the  Breviary.  The 
hymnal  announced  the  early  appearance  of  a 
Breviary  drawn  up  upon  a  new  plan  by  the  same 
author,  which  was  to  be  conspicuous  for  brevity,  con- 
venience, and  freedom  from  errors  of  all  kinds.  This 
plan,  however,  was  never  realized. 

(b)  The  traditional  school  comprised  men  of  piety, 
of  deep  religious  feeling,  from  Raoul  of  Tongres 
(f  1 401)  to  Burchard  of  Strassburg,  who  were  strongly 
attached  to  liturgical  tradition  ;  among  them  the  Thea- 
tines,  Caraffa,  afterwards  Pope  Paul  IV,  and,  later 
on,  John  de  Arze,  were  their  chief  representatives. 
These  champions  of  ancient  rites,  formulas,  and  texts 
were  ready  to  admit  the  defects  of  the  Breviary  at 
this  period,  i.e.  the  excessive  number  of  festivals,  the 
too  frequent  omission  of  the  lections  from  Scripture, 
along  with  the  psalms  for  Sundays  and  ferias,  apocry- 
phal legends,  and,  chief  of  all,  the  accumulation  of 
several  offices  on  the  same  day.  Their  love  for  the 
past,  however,  was  perhaps  excessive. 

1  Institute  liturgiques,  i.  p.  355.  ed.  Palme,  1880. 


From  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth   Century    125 

(c)  The  moderate  school  was  represented  by  Cardi- 
nal Francis  Quignonez,  a  Spaniard,  who  before  his 
elevation  to  the  cardinalate  had  been  general  of  the 
Franciscans;  Reginald  Pole;  Contarini;  Sadolet  and 
the  Benedictine  Gregory  Cortesius,  who  had  been 
cardinal  since  1542.  These  also  set  a  high  value  on 
a  polished  classical  style,  pure  latinity,  and  well- 
turned  periods,  but,  at  the  same  time,  laid  the  chief 
stress  on  a  dignified  Christian  spirit. 

3.  Cardinal  Quignonez  and  the  " Breviarium  Sanctce 
Cruris" : — The  work  of  Quignonez  requires  to  be 
mentioned  here  on  account  of  the  influence  it 
exercised  on  the  Breviary  put  out  later  by  St.  Pius  V., 
and  because  of  the  fact  that,  after  enjoying  great 
popularity  during  several  years,  it  was  afterwards  so 
completely  forgotten. 

While  the  author  of  this  new  Breviary  broke  away 
from  tradition  and  antiquity,  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  he  did  not  undertake  to  compose  a  Breviary 
for  public  use  in  choir.  An  outline  of  his  preface  will 
give  an  idea  of  the  plan  he  had  in  his  mind.  The 
church,  he  says,  lays  the  obligation  of  reciting  the 
Breviary  upon  the  priest  for  three  reasons — (a) 
because  he  is  the  official  intermediary  between  God 
and  the  people  ;  (b)  in  order  that,  while  preserved  from 
temptations  through  union  with  God  in  his  thoughts 
and  meditations,  he  may  be  an  example  to  the 
faithful ;  (c)  in  order  that  he  may  gain  sufficient 
knowledge,  and  a  diction  which  may  enable  him  to 


126  The  Roman  Breviary 

preach  with  good  effect.  Quignonez  did  not  find 
these  intentions  of  the  church  realized  in  the  Breviaries 
of  his  day.  He  regards  the  Breviary  itself  as  respon- 
sible for  this,  and  draws  a  distinction  between  the 
public  and  the  private  recitation  of  the  Breviary,  the 
latter,  in  his  opinion,  being  almost  impossible  owing 
to  the  arrangement  of  the  existing  Breviaries.  The 
axe  must  therefore  be  laid  to  the  root  of  the  tree,  and 
a  complete  re-arrangement  effected. 

In  order  that  the  entire  psalter  should  be  recited 
once  each  week,  that  the  principal  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture should  be  read  through  once  at  least  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  that  the  office  should  be  almost 
the  same  length  every  day,  and  that  the  Sunday  office 
should  not  be  of  inordinate  length,  Quignonez  deter- 
mined— (A)  Each  hour  was  to  be  made  up,  as  a  rule, 
of  three  psalms,  to  which  were  added  the  Benedictus, 
Magnificat,  and  Nunc  Dimittis  at  Lauds,  Vespers, 
and  Compline.  At  Lauds,  the  Benedicite  took  the 
place  of  the  third  psalm.  (B)  The  arrangement  of 
the  psalms  was  such  that  no  psalm  was  repeated  in 
the  course  of  a  week.  (C)  The  lections  were  limited 
to  three :  the  short  lections  in  the  little  hours,  Lauds 
and  Vespers,  disappeared  altogether.  The  lections  at 
Matins  were  drawn,  the  first  from  the  Old  Testament ; 
the  second  from  the  New  Testament;  the  third,  on 
saints'  days,  from  the  legend  or  acts  of  the  saint,  on 
Sundays,  ferias,  feasts  of  our  Lord  and  our  Lady, 
from  the  homilies  of  the  Fathers,  on  the  gospel  for  the 


Fro?n  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth  Century    i  2  7 

day,  and  also  from  the  New  Testament.  They  were 
of  considerable  length,  in  order  to  ensure  the  reading 
of  the  chief  part  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  whole 
of  the  New  during  the  course  of  the  year,  and  of  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul  twice.  A  choice  was  made  among 
the  legends,  to  the  exclusion  of  those  whose  truth  was 
doubtful.  (D)  There  was  thus  greater  simplicity,  and 
the  burden  of  the  office  was  lightened.  There  was 
scarcely  any  difference  between  the  Sunday  and 
ferial  offices  and  the  offices  for  saints'  days.  The 
only  essentially  variable  parts  of  the  office  were  the 
Invitatory,  the  hymns  at  Matins,  Lauds,  and  Vespers, 
the  Collect,  and  the  third  lection  at  Matins  ;  to  these 
were  added  the  antiphons  after  1536.  The  psalms 
were  invariable,  their  selection  depending  solely 
upon  the  day  of  the  week.  (E)  Everything  else — 
versicles,  great  and  little  responds,  chapters,  and,  in 
the  edition  of  1535,  even  the  antiphons — was  swept 
away.  The  office  for  the  dead  and  the  office  of  our 
Lady  were  restricted  to  a  very  few  days  in  the  year. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  some  of  the  ideas  of 
Quignonez  were  shared  by  others.  Thus,  one  of  the 
first  authorities  on  liturgical  matters  at  that  period,  the 
Blessed  J.  M.  Tommasi,  in  a  project  he  put  out  for  a 
new  Breviary  intended  for  private  use,  held  that  the 
Holy  See  could  well  dispense  the  clergy  from 
antiphons  and  responds  when  reciting  the  office  out 
of  choir.  In  this  he  relied  upon  certain  well-known 
passages  of  the  Apostolic  Constitutions,  of  Amalarius 


128  The  Roman  Breviary 

and  certain  other  writers,  but  these  passages  prove 
little  when  one  remembers  that  before  the  fifth  or 
sixth  centuries  the  psalmody  in  the  choir  was  very 
simple,  and  that  in  the  time  of  Amalarius  the 
impossibility  of  procuring  the  necessary  office-books 
could  excuse  many  things. 

The  Breviary  of  Quignonez  was  called  the  Bre- 
viarium  Sanctce  Cruets  because  its  author  was  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce,  as  he 
took  his  title  from  the  basilica  of  Santa  Croce  in 
Gerusalemme. 

Advantages  of  this  Breviary: — The  preface  mentions 
three :  those  who  adopt  this  manner  of  prayer  will 
gain  a  knowledge  of  both  Testaments  by  reading  a 
considerable  portion  of  them  every  year,  they  will  also 
find  great  simplicity  of  arrangement  coupled  with 
brevity,  and,  although  the  lections  are  longer,  yet  there 
are  only  three,  while  in  the  old  Breviaries  there  were 
more  than  twelve,  with  versicles  and  responds  besides 
{i.e.  counting  the  office  of  our  Lady).  The  new 
arrangement  prevents  loss  of  time  and  lessens  fatigue. 
The  first  two  lections  follow  an  invariable  course 
throughout  the  year.  Finally,  the  histories  of  the 
saints  contain  nothing  offensive  to  the  ears  of  the 
grave  and  learned. 

Disadvantages ofthe"Breviarium  Sanctce  Cruets "; — 
The  work  of  Quignonez  was  intended  at  first  as  only 
a  provisional  book  for  use  in  the  private  recitation  of 
the  office.     It  never  enjoyed  more  than  a  "  domestic  " 


From  Fourteenth  to  Sixteenth   Century    129 

approbation  from  the  pope.  Paul  III.  permitted  its 
use  only  to  those  clergy  who  individually  asked  for 
the  permission.  Although  at  first  received  with 
favour,  it  gave  rise  also  to  strong  objections. 

In  1535,  the  year  of  its  appearance,  it  was  strongly 
censured  by  the  Sorbonne  upon  its  arrival  in  France. 
The  Faculte  de  Paris,  to  which  the  Parliament  had 
referred  the  Breviary,  convicted  as  audacious  an 
author  who  suppressed  ancient  and  universal  customs, 
and  broke  away  altogether  from  tradition  in  order  to 
welcome  all  sorts  of  liturgical  novelties. 

This  was  also  the  view  taken  by  celebrated  theo- 
logians such  as  Dominic  Soto,  who  could  see  no 
advantage  in  abandoning  in  this  way  the  customs  and 
practices  of  antiquity,  and  called  attention  to  the 
grave  results  which  would  arise  from  the  use  of  this 
new  Breviary,  such  as  dislike  on  the  part  of  clergy  for 
the  public  office,  aversion  from  prayer,  and  carelessness 
in  the  service  of  God  ;  and  then,  in  the  work  itself,  the 
frequent  unsuitableness  of  the  psalms  recited  to  the 
mystery  commemorated.  For  example,  if  the  Nativity 
of  our  Lord  or  the  Assumption  fell  on  a  Friday,  the 
psalms  21  {Dens,  Dens  mens,  respice),  68  (Salvum  me 
fac,  Dens),  70  (In  te  speravi),  expressive  of  sadness, 
would  come  in  Matins,  while  the  mysteries  speak  of 
joy  and  happiness.  Martin  de  Azpilcueta,  known  as 
the  Doctor  of  Navarre,  also  remarks  that  while 
Ouignonez  laid  great  stress  on  Holy  Scripture,  sup- 
pressed legends  without  sufficient  reason,  avoided  the 

9 


130  The  Roman  Breviary 

confusion  caused  by  the  transference  of  feasts,  pro- 
cured more  time  of  study  for  students,  he  yet  cut  out 
things  of  great  importance  on  insufficient  grounds. 

The  most  decided  and  energetic  condemnation  of 
this  Breviary  came  from  the  Spanish  theologian  John 
de  Arze,  one  of  the  consultors  at  the  Council  of  Trent, 
whom  we  have  already  mentioned.  Like  the  Sorbonne 
and  Soto,  he  finds  fault  with  Quignonez  for  having 
rashly  departed  from  ecclesiastical  tradition  and  gone 
against  the  express  decrees  of  the  Holy  See.  The 
chief  end  of  the  Breviary  is  prayer  and  not  instruction. 
To  speak  of  brevity  and  convenience  of  arrangement, 
is  only  to  cast  dishonour  upon  the  clergy  and 
scandalize  the  laity,  by  reducing  the  daily  obligations 
of  the  former  while  their  incomes  are  increased.  It 
is  well  known  that  those  of  the  clergy  who  are  most 
zealous  and  active  in  the  cure  of  souls,  in  study,  or  in 
teaching,  can  yet  find  sufficient  time  for  prayer,  and 
experience  great  spiritual  joy  in  reciting  the  anti- 
phons,  chapters,  etc.  To  adopt  this  Breviary  officially 
and  universally  would  be  to  strip  the  divine  office  of 
its  character  as  a  witness  to  dogma  which  it  has  en- 
joyed from  the  earliest  times.  Finally,  Quignonez  is 
too  severe  in  his  criticisms  on  the  legends,  and,  out  of 
rationalistic  zeal,  has  suppressed  everything  approach- 
ing the  supernatural. 

It  may  cause  some  astonishment  to  find  a  work 
approved  of  by  the  Holy  See  criticized  in  this  style. 
but  the  terms  in  which  Paul   III.   explained  his  in- 


From  Fozcrteenth  to  Sixteenth   Century    131 

tentions  must  not  be  left  out  of  sight.  "We  grant," 
he  says,  "to  each  and  all  of  the  secular  clerks  and 
clergy  who  shall  desire  to  recite  this  office,  and  to 
them  alone,1  to  be  no  longer  bound  to  the  recitation 
of  the  ancient  office  now  in  use  in  the  Roman  Curia 
or  in  any  other  church.  .  .  .  Each  of  them  is  bound 
to  obtain  special  leave  from  the  Apostolic  See  to  this 
effect."  Expressions  such  as  these  are  far  from  a 
formal  approbation. 

Moreover,  Quignonez,  far  from  sheltering  himself 
under  this  pronouncement,  did  not  disdain  to  defend 
his  Breviary  against  the  Faculte  de  Paris,  granting 
that  it  was  a  book  like  any  other  and  must  submit 
to  public  criticism  ;  this  is  the  substance  of  the 
preface  to  the  new  edition  of  1536. 

In  spite  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  work 
was  hailed  at  first,  it  did  not  live  ;  it  had  a  run  of 
less  than  forty  years.  Even  in  1558,  Paul  IV.,  with- 
out condemning  its  provisional  employment,  decided 
it  was  undesirable  to  authorize  it  to  be  reprinted. 

Still,  by  the  reception  given   to  it,  this   Breviary 

indirectly   prepared    the   way    for    the   later   reform 

carried  out  by  St.  Pius  V.     The  Breviarium  Planum 

could  not  have  replaced  so  easily  the  local  Breviaries 

of  various  countries,  provinces,  dioceses,  and   mona- 

1  It  is  plain  from  this,  says  Dom  Gueranger  {Institut.  litur- 
giques,  i.  p.  363,  note),  that  Rome  feared  to  do  anything  to  relax 
the  religious  orders  by  allowing  them  to  adopt  this  shortened 
office,  and  so  to  overthrow  the  ancient  traditions  more  faithfully 
preserved  in  the  cloister  than  elsewhere. 


132  The  Roman  Breviary 

steries,  many  of  which  could  claim  the  presumption  of 
an  antiquity  from  three  to  five  centuries,  had  not  the 
forma  brevis  et  expedita  of  Quignonez's  office  already 
supplanted  them.  But  we  must  reserve  for  the  third 
part  the  explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Breviarium  Sanctce  Cruets  paved  the  way  for  the 
reform  which  followed  immediately  upon  the  Council 
of  Trent. 


Part  III 
THE    MODERN    PERIOD 

In  the  modern  period  of  the  Breviary's  history,  it  is 
the  Church  herself  who  undertook  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion, and  one  of  the  chief  results  of  the  holy  Council 
of  Trent  was  to  have  set  on  foot  the  movement 
towards  the  unification  of  the  divine  office.  Not- 
withstanding all  that  was  done  to  render  further 
correction  unnecessary,  it  was  not  long  before  it  was 
felt  and  stated  that  this  Breviary  still  left  something 
to  be  desired,  and  the  successors  of  St.  Pius  V.  made 
no  difficulty  in  yielding  to  the  requests  for  improve- 
ment addressed  to  them.  Perhaps  Urban  VIII.  went 
too  far  in  his  corrections,  but  he  was  soon  to  be 
surpassed  by  others. 

Without  troubling  themselves  to  obtain  the  consent 
of  the  supreme  authority,  local  churches,  and  among 
them  nearly  all  the  dioceses  of  France,  thought  fit  to 
try  their  hand  at  reforming  the  Breviary,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  unity  of  the  faith.  The  pontifical 
authority,  while  deploring  these  mistaken   attempts, 

was  nevertheless  alive  to  the  importance  of  questions 

i33 


134  The  Roman  Breviary 

relating  to  the  reform  of  the  Breviary,  and  sought  for 
means  whereby  to  satisfy  all  reasonable  objections. 
Until  the  present  time,  nothing  has  ever  gone  beyond 
the  stage  of  mere  suggestions  ;  the  church,  in  the 
wise  deliberation  characteristic  of  her,  has  not  thought 
fit  to  carry  them  out.  She  has  rested  satisfied  with 
modifications  in  matters  of  detail,  while  at  the  same 
time  continuing  to  enrich  the  calendar  by  adding 
fresh  saints'  days.  In  order  the  better  to  follow  the 
stages  in  this  period  of  the  Breviary's  history,  we  shall 
divide  it  into  three  chapters: — (i)  The  Council  of 
Trent  and  the  Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V. ;  (2)  The 
Roman  Breviary  from  St.  Pius  V.  to  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  (3)  The  Roman  Breviary  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  In  an  appendix  will  be  given  a 
bird's-eye  view  of  the  changes  which  the  Roman 
calendar  has  undergone  in  the  past. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  AND  THE  BREVIARY  OF 
ST.  PIUS  V. 

Section  i. — Preparation  for  the  Reforma- 
tion of  the  Breviary 

i  Quignonez  .-1 — At  the  end  of  the  second  part  of 
this  book  we  have  seen  the  fate  of  Cardinal  Quignonez's 
work.  Notwithstanding  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
it  had  been  hailed  in  certain  quarters,  it  could  not 
hold  its  own,  for,  as  Dom  Gueranger  remarks,  it 
lacked  the  conditions  essential  to  all  serious  reforma- 
tion of  the  liturgy,  "(i)  A  liturgical  formula  drawn 
up  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  literary  pretensions 
can  never  last ;  (2)  the  reformation  of  the  liturgy,  if 
it  is  to  last,  must  be  effected,  not  by  the  learned,  but 
by  the  pious,  and  those  endowed  with  competent 
authority;  (3)  novelties  must  be  avoided:  wherever 
the  ancient  formulas  have  become  defective,  they 
must     be     restored     to     their     original     purity,    not 

1  [The  text  of  the  second  recension  of  Cardinal  Quignonez's 
Breviary  was  published  in  1908  by  the  Henry  Bradshaw 
Society.] 

135 


136  The  Roman  Breviary 

destroyed  ;  (4)  to  shorten  the  office  is  not  the  same 
thing  as  to  reform  it,  as  its  length  is  no  defect  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  are  bound  to  live  a  life  of  prayer ; 
(5)  the  reading  of  a  quantity  of  Holy  Scripture  in 
the  office  does  not  constitute  the  whole  of  a  priest's 
obligation  with  regard  to  prayer ;  (6)  there  is  no  real 
distinction  between  the  public  and  private  office,  for 
there  are  not  two  formulas  of  official  prayer  in  the 
church :  a  cleric,  when  absent  with  good  reason 
from  choir,  is  still  bound  to  unite  with  his  brethren  in 
reciting  the  office  which  they  are  singing  in  union 
with  him."  l  We  have  only  to  see  how  the  Gallicans 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  were 
influenced  by  Quignonez,  and  adopted  his  ideas,  to 
understand  how  the  Breviarium  Sa)ictce  Cruris  paved 
the  way  for  a  dangerous  individualism.2 

This  is  not  to  be  taken  as  meaning  that  all  his 
ideas  were  to  be  rejected.  The  Spanish  theologian, 
John  de  Arze,  when  criticizing  the  work,  recognized 
that  there  were  points  to  be  recommended  in  the 
Cardinal's  proposal.  The  statement  addressed  to 
the  Council  of  Trent  with  a  view  to  the  revision  of 
the  Breviary,  and,  later  on,  the  report  of  the  com- 
mission institued  by  Pius  IV.  and  Pius  V.,  express  in 

1  Dom  Gueranger,  Institutions  liturgiques,  i.  pp.  378,  379, 
ed.  Palme,  1880. 

2  Batiffol,  History  of  the  Roman  Breviary ',  Eng.  ed.,  p.  248, 
speaks  of  "  the  affinities,  unrealized  but  only  too  real,  which  sub- 
sisted between  the  work  of  Quignonez  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation.'" 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Puis    V.  137 

different  terms  what  Quignonez  had  said  at  the 
commencement  and  conclusion  of  his  letter  to 
Paul  III.  We  cannot  delay  over  the  remarks  of 
John  de  Arze,  "and  if  there  were  others  [of  his 
criticisms]  less  well-founded,  or  which  prove  nothing 
by  trying  to  prove  too  much  ;  if  it  is  true  that  some 
of  his  considerations  are  pushed  too  far  in  the  direction 
of  declamatory  vehemence,  there  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  some  pages  of  his  memorandum  which  are 
characterized  by  a  simple  and  lively  eloquence." l 

The  publication  of  this  Breviary  was  the  means  of 
hastening  on  a  reform  which  everyone  regarded  as 
necessary.  John  de  Arze  laid  down  the  broad  lines 
on  which  this  reform  should  proceed  when  he  ex- 
pressed the  desire  that  at  a  future  date  the  rubrics 
should  be  made  clearer,  the  entire  arrangement  of 
the  Breviary  simplified,  the  legends  and  also  the 
Sunday  and  ferial  offices  revised,  and  the  lections 
taken  from  Holy  Scripture.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
desired  that  all  the  essential  parts  of  the  ordo  officii 
hitherto  followed  should  be  preserved,  that  the  work 
should  be  undertaken  by  experts  who  were  both 
learned  and  pious,  and  should  be  carried  out  with 
deliberation. 

2.   The  Theatines  and  Caraffa : — The  men  for  the 

work  had  already  been  found :  in  the  silence  of  their 

cells  they  had  before  this  commenced  a  work,  with 

the  blessing  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  which  was  later 

1  Batiffol,  History  of  the  Roma?t  Breviary,  Eng.  ed.,  p.  246. 


138  The  Roman  Breviary 

on  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  the  projected  reform. 
Alongside  the  projects  of  Ferreri  and  Quignonez, 
another  attempt  of  a  similar  nature  took  shape  under 
the  patronage  of  Pope  Clement  VII.  (1 523-1 534). 
The  pope  had  given  order  to  the  founder  of  the 
congregation  of  the  Theatines,  St.  Cajetan  of  Theate, 
and  his  fellow-worker  John  Peter  Caraffa  (the  future 
Paul  IV.),  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  the  improvement  of 
the  Breviary.  The  brief  is  dated  20th  February 
1529,  an  earlier  brief,  of  24th  June  1524,  grant- 
ing the  Theatines  permission  to  use  in  choir  and 
in  private  recitation  the  Breviary  as  corrected  by 
themselves,  in  order  to  discover  by  practical  ex- 
perience which  alterations  were  suitable  and  which 
were  not. 

The  result  of  their  labours,  in  which  Caraffa  took 
the  chief  part,  led  to  the  rejection  of  the  homilies  of 
Origen  and  others  of  a  similar  character,  the  drawing 
up  of  new  and  clearer  rubrics,  the  elucidation  of  the 
obscure  rubrics  concerning  Advent,  the  notable 
shortening  of  Sunday  Prime,  It  was  especially  laid 
down  that  when  another  office  came  on  Sunday,  the 
commemoration  of  the  Sunday  was  never  to  be 
omitted.  Finally,  Caraffa  selected  homilies  of  St. 
Leo  the  Great  for  the  two  offices  of  the  Holy  Cross, 
allotted  the  sermon  of  St.  Ambrose,  taken  from  the 
second  book  of  De  Virginibus,  for  St.  Agnes,  and  an 
abridged  account  of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Thomas  a 
Becket  for  the  office  of  that  Saint,  and  replaced  the 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pius    V.  139 

hymns  for  the  Transfiguration  and  Trinity  Sunday 
by  better  ones.1 

The  work  was  attended  by  many  difficulties,  chiefly 
due  to  the  hesitation  of  Clement  VII.,  who,  under 
the  circumstances,  was  always  ready  to  listen  to  fresh 
advice  before  coming  to  a  decision.  The  authors  of 
the  reform  were  inspired  with  fresh  courage  when 
Clement  VII.  was  succeeded  first  by  Paul  III.,  in  whose 
pontificate  appeared  the  Breviarium  Sanctce  Cruets, 
and  then  by  Julius  III.,  from  whom  Caraffa,  whose 
patience  was  worn  out  by  these  delays,  asked  to 
be  dispensed  from  the  ancient  office,  in  order  to 
become  familiar  with  the  Breviary  of  Quignonez. 
This,  however,  seems  highly  improbable:  it  would 
be  nearer  the  mark  to  imagine  that,  along  with  the 
petition  to  be  dispensed  from  the  ancient  Breviary,  he 
coupled  the  request  for  permission  to  use  either  his 
his  own  work  or  a  copy  corrected  by  himself. 

When  Caraffa  became  pope,  under  the  name  of 
Paul  IV.  (1555-1559))  he  resumed  his  labours  with 
the  aid  of  faithful  advisers,  and,  combining  practice 
with  theory,  recited  his  reformed  office  along  with 
them  in  his  private  chapel.  Soon  after  his  coronation, 
he  forbade  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  Rome  and 
the  nuncios  abroad  to  grant  leave  for  the  recitation 
of  Quignonez's  Breviary,  and  indeed  from  this  date, 
1556,   no    new    edition    of   the    Breviarium    Sanctce 

1  Cf.  the  Acta  Sanctorum  of  the  Bollandists  for  August,  ii., 
die  7,  n.  50. 


140  The  Roman  Breviary 

Cruris  appeared  at  Rome.  Paul  IV.  died  before  the 
completion  and  publication  of  his  reformed  Breviary, 
but  an  act  of  his  regarding  the  calendar  may  be 
mentioned  here.  On  the  14th  January  1558  he 
decreed  in  a  solemn  consistory,  in  consequence  of  a 
report  presented  by  Cardinal  Sirleto,  that  from  hence- 
forth the  St.  Peter's  chair  at  Rome  should  be 
celebrated  on  the  18th  January  as  well  as  the  other 
feast  of  St.  Peter's  chair  kept  on  the  22nd  February. 
The  former  feast  had  been  already  in  existence,  as 
it  is  mentioned  in  MSS.  of  the  eighth  and  even  of 
the  seventh  centuries,  and  the  learned  have  long 
sought,  but  without  success,  an  explanation  of  the 
existence  of  two  solemnities  with  the  same  name — 
Cathedra  Sancti  Petri} 

1  Little  importance  is  now  paid  to  the  words  in  Ant 'ioc/u'a, 
added  to  the  notice  on  the  22nd  Feb.,  although  they  are  in  the 
Martyrology  :  they  were  only  added  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century  when  people  were  beginning  to  forget  the  reasons  which 
had  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  double  solemnity.  Stevenson 
and  de  Rossi  think  that  the  feast  of  the  18th  Jan.  commemorates 
an  historical  event,  i.e.  the  arrival  of  St.  Peter  in  Rome,  while 
that  of  the  22nd  Feb.  commemorates  the  bestowal  of  the 
Primacy  on  St.  Peter  by  Jesus  Christ,  which  descended  as  a 
heritage  to  the  Roman  pontiffs.  Mgr.  Duchesne  {Origifies  du 
Culte  chretien^  pp.  267-268)  expresses  the  opinion  "  que  la  fete 
du  22  fevrier  tombait  souvent  en  careme  et  comme  dans  les  pays 
gallicans  on  estimait  Inobservance  quadrajesimale  incompatible 
avec  les  solemnites  en  Thonneur  des  saints,  on  se  tira  de  cette 
difficulte  en  avancant  la  fete  au  18  Janvier."  In  this  case  the  two 
solemnities  would  commemorate  the  same  event ;  and  after  the 
disappearance  of  Gallican  ideas  as  to  Lent,  they  were  both  con- 
tinued.    \Cf.  Kellners  Heortology  (Eng.  trans.))  pp.  301  et  seqq."] 


The  Breviary  of  St.    Pitts    V.  141 

3.  The  Council  of  Trent: — The  holy  Council,  in 
view  of  the  circumstances  just  alluded  to,  could  not 
pass  over  the  question  of  the  Breviary,  especially  as 
it  was  necessarily  bound  up  with  the  correction  of 
the  missal.  Nevertheless,  it  was  only  at  the  con- 
clusion of  its  sittings  that  it  considered  the  matter  in 
detail  (1 562-1 563).  At  the  German  court,  under 
Ferdinand  I.,  successor  of  Charles  V.,  a  plan  for  the 
reform  of  the  Breviary  had  been  drawn  up  for 
presentation  to  the  Council.  After  finding  fault  with 
Pope  Paul  IV.,  who  had  confined  his  attention  to 
some  saints'  days  alone,  although  he  had  promised 
an  extensive  reform,  the  authors  of  this  document 
demanded  emphatically  "  greater  piety  and  devotion 
in  the  celebration  of  the  divine  office  in  the  first  place, 
and  then  a  searching  examination  and  correction  of 
the  Breviary."  Above  all,  "  everything  unsuitable  and 
apocryphal  which  had  crept  in  must  be  cut  out ; 
prayers  of  great  length  are  to  be  curtailed  and 
reduced  in  number.  It  would  be  better  to  recite  only 
five  psalms  with  devotion  and  pleasure,  than  the 
whole  psalter  with  dislike  and  fatigue  "  (cf.  Martene  et 
Durand,  Veterum  scriptorum  ....  collectio,  viii.,  1426). 

Fortunate  times,  when  secular  princes  made  it  their 
aim  to  ensure  the  worthy  celebration  of  the  divine 
office,  and  considered  they  could  render  no  greater 
benefit  to  their  people  than  by  obtaining  for  them  the 
blessing  of  a  devoutly  recited  form  of  prayer !  The 
legates  did  not  present  this  document  to  the  Council 


142  The  Roman  Breviary 

exactly  as  they  received  it,  but  they  made  extracts 
from  it  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  further  deliberations. 
The  imperial  envoys  were  informed  that  the  revision 
of  the  Breviary  would  be  submitted  to  the  Commission 
of  the  Index,  but  it  must  not  be  anticipated  that  the 
traditional  rite  followed  by  the  Roman  church  since 
Gregory  VII.  would  be  set  aside,  or  that  the  office 
would  be  lessened  by  the  diminution  of  the  Pensunt 
servitutis  imposed  upon  the  clergy.1 

The  French  court,  on  its  part  (Charles  IX.  or  his 
mother  and  the  States  General),  made  representations 
to  the  Council  of  Trent  through  the  Cardinal  of  Lor- 
raine, Charles  de  Guise,  who  strongly  insisted  upon 
the  necessity  of  purifying  divine  service,  cutting  off 
superstitions,  and  submitting  the  prayers  and  cere- 
monies to  a  revision.  St.  Charles  Borromeo  presented 
to  the  legates  a  promemoria  from  the  Spanish  bishop 
of  Huesca,  coupled  with  an  order  to  summon  the 
author  to  Trent  in  order  to  discuss  with  him  the 
measures  to  be  taken.  This  bishop  had  complained 
of  the  substitution  of  Ouignonez's  Breviary  for  the 
Roman  in  many  Spanish  churches. 

The  legates  soon  set  to  work,  and  on  the  23rd 
November  following  (1562)  sent  to  Pope  Pius  IV.  and 
his  Secretary  of  State,  Cardinal  Charles  Borromeo,  the 
draft  of  a  decree  which  was  well  received  at  Rome. 
They  received  an  answer  that  they  were  to  continue 
their  labours  until  the  matter  was  completed.     How- 

1  Letter  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo  to  the  legates,  7th  Nov.  1562. 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pius   V.  143 

ever,  heated  debates  on  the  primacy  of  the  pope  and 
the  source  of  episcopal  jurisdiction  led  to  the  question 
of  the  Breviary  being  postponed  for  a  time.     It  came 
up   again  in  the  middle  of  1563,  and  a  commission 
for   the  revision  of  the  divine  office  was  appointed, 
which  took  as  a  basis  the  work  of  Paul  IV.     We  have 
no    details    concerning    this    commission,   and   it    is 
probable  it  was  none  other  than  the  Commission  of 
the    Index — a    supposition    which    receives    support 
from  the  fact  that  among  those  who  worked  at  the 
correction    of  the   Breviary  in    Rome  we  find  three 
belonging  to  the  Commission  of  the  Index,  i.e.  the 
Dominican  Leonardo  Marini  of  Genoa,  Archbishop  of 
Lanciano,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Albe  ;  Muzio  Calinio, 
Archbishop    of    Zara,   one    of    the    most    energetic 
members  of  the  Council  ;  Egidio  Foscarari,  a  Domini- 
can, born  at  Bologna,  Bishop  of  Modena,  where  for 
a  time  he  was  unjustly  imprisoned  for  heresy,  a  man 
remarkable  for  his  charity.     Along  with  these  there 
appears  an  Englishman,  Thomas  Goldwell,  Bishop  of 
St.  Asaph,  who  must  not  be  confused  with  the  monk 
of  the  same  name  ;  he  belonged  to  the  congregation 
of  the  Theatines,  was  appointed  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph, 
and  deprived  of  his  diocese  under  Queen  Elizabeth  ; 
after  the  Council  of  Trent  he  was  Vicar-general  of  St. 
Charles  at   Milan,  papal  master  of  ceremonies,  and, 
finally,  under  Gregory  XIII.,  took  an  active  part  in 
the  revision  of  the  Martyrology. 

Before   the   commission    had    finished    its  labours, 


144  The  Roman  Breviary 

two  currents  of  opinion  relating  to  liturgical  reforms 
had  shown  themselves  in  the  Council — some  desiring 
complete  uniformity  throughout  the  whole  church, 
others  giving  preference  to  the  diocesan  rites,  and  pre- 
pared to  recognize  them  as  privileged.  In  view  of 
the  impossibility  of  arriving  at  an  understanding  and 
of  the  necessity  of  proceeding  calmly  in  a  matter  of 
such  importance,  the  Council,  in  its  twenty-fifth  session, 
decided  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  judgement  of  the 
Roman  pontiff,  after  sending  him  the  Acts  relating 
to  the  question.1  This  decision  was  not  arrived  at 
without,  indeed,  meeting  with  much  opposition,  but 
the  majority  of  the  Fathers  wisely  judged  that  as  it 
was  a  question  of  revising  and  correcting  the  liturgy, 
Rome  was  the  only  place  where  this  work  could  be 
carried  out,  since  all  were  agreed  that  the  Roman 
liturgy  had  precedence  of  all  others,  and  was  to  serve 
as  the  type  and  rule  for  all  the  countries  of  the  West. 

Section  2.— The  Reform  of  the  Breviary 
carried  out 

I.  The  Roman  Commission  and  its  Labours. 

1.  The  bull  of  St.  Pius  V.,  Quod  a  nobis,  states  that 
Pius  IV.,  having  received  the  Acts  of  the  Commission 
of  the  Breviary  (towards  the  close  of  1563),  summoned 
the  commission  to  Rome  and  added  to  it  some  new 

1  Deer  eta  SS.  Concilii  Tride?itini,  sess.  xxv.,  de  Reformatione  : 
De  Indice  .  .  .  Breviario. 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Puts    V.  145 

members — who  they  were  still  remains  uncertain. 
Pius  IV.  died  in  1565.  Pius  V.,  who  succeeded,  con- 
firmed the  commission  in  all  its  powers,  and  added 
some  more  members,  concerning  whom  we  have  only 
the  vaguest  details.  We  shall  set  down  all  that  is 
known  about  the  seven  or  eight  individuals  who 
worked  on  the  commission  in  company  with  the  four 
prelates  from  Trent  mentioned  above. 

These  were  the  Cardinal  of  Trani;  Bernardino 
Scotto  (or  Scotti),  Theatine,  Bishop  of  Piacenza,  who 
seems  to  have  been  president  of  the  congregation,  at 
least  for  part  of  the  time  ;  Sirleto,  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  Roman  curia,  the  life  and  soul 
of  the  commission,  and  its  president  in  the  absence 
of  Scotto;  the  elegant  Latinist,  Julius  Poggiani,  who 
worked  at  the  literary  composition  of  most  of  the 
legends;  Curtius  de'  Franchi,  Canon  of  St.  Peter's; 
Vincent  Masso,  Theatine,  celebrated  for  his  knowledge 
of  church  history  ;  Messer  Accurzio,  about  whom  we 
know  nothing  definite ;  Antony  Carafifa,  born  at 
Naples,  nephew  of  Paul  IV.,  created  cardinal  by  Pius 
V.,  protector  of  the  Olivetans,  among  whom  he  revived 
the  taste  for  scientific  studies,  and  restored  the  practice 
of  regular  discipline  ;  Ponce  de  Leon,  who,  although 
he  took  no  actual  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the 
commission,  was  of  great  use  to  its  members  by  his 
correspondence  with  Sirleto.  It  was  he  who  suggested 
in  particular — (a)  that  special  notice  should  be  taken 

of  all  the  saints  mentioned  in  the  canon  of  the  Mass, 

10 


146  The  Roman  Breviary 

of  the  Greek  and  Latin  doctors,  of  all  founders  of 
religious  orders,  of  the  two  princes  of  scholasticism, 
SS.  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Bonaventure,  and  also  of 
certain  Spanish  saints,  such  as  St.  Isidore  and  his 
brothers,  St.  Leander  and  St.  Fulgentius  ;  (6)  that  in 
the  proper  de  tempore  the  lections  should  as  a  rule  be 
taken  from  Holy  Scripture,  with  the  indication  of  the 
book  from  which  they  are  taken  ;  (c)  that  care  should 
be  taken  to  point  out  the  work  or  sermon  from  which 
the  lections  drawn  from  the  homilies  and  sermons  of 
the  Fathers  are  taken.  He  emphasized  certain  critical 
difficulties  in  the  offices  of  St.  Catharine,  of  St.  Simon 
the  Apostle — often  confused  with  St.  Simeon,  first 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem — of  the  two  Apostles  James,  and 
of  St.  Cyprian.  Eleven  or  twelve  members  thus  took 
part  in  the  work  of  revising  the  Breviary  accomplished 
in  Rome. 

2.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  these  labours  in 
detail ;  it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  the  principles 
which  underlay  them,  and  the  general  lines  forming 
the  method  upon  which  they  were  carried  on,  and  for 
this  three  documents  are  of  primal  importance,  i.e. 
the  Breviary  itself,  as  published  in  1568;  the  bull 
Quod  a  nobis,  which  forms  the  preface  to  all  the 
editions  at  the  commencement  of  the  volume  for  the 
winter  quarter  ;  and  an  Italian  report,  or  promemoria, 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  written  by  a  member  of  the  com- 
mission, probably  Marini,  Archbishop  of  Lanciano, 
and  addressed  to  one  of  the  cardinals. 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Puts    V.  147 

The  ruling  principle  is  an  idea  diametrically  opposed 
to  that  of  Quignonez — no  essential  part  of  the  ancient 
Roman  Breviary  is  to  be  expunged.  Their  object 
was  not  to  create  a  new  Breviary,  but  to  restore  that 
already  in  existence  to  its  primitive  condition,  having 
regard  at  the  same  time  to  altered  circumstances ; 
there  ought  to  be  no  difference  between  the  text  of 
the  public  office  and  the  office  recited  in  private,  for 
the  office  is  always  to  be  recited  by  the  priest  in  the 
name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  church,  and  as  the 
representative  of  the  Christian  people,  humanity,  and 
the  whole  creation — it  is  still  essentially  a  public 
office  even  though  the  priest  or  religious  recites  it  in 
the  silence  of  his  cell.  Thus  alone  can  the  continuity 
of  the  liturgical  tradition  of  Christianity  be  preserved 
free  from  essential  alteration,  while  allowing  for  the 
development  and  progress  necessary  in  every  living 
body.  Such  was  the  principle  to  which  the  com- 
mission constantly  return,  as  may  be  seen  by  the 
numerous  statements  of  its  president,  Sirleto;  it  was 
this  which  moved  them  to  examine  the  oldest  MSS., 
to  study  the  printed  editions  of  the  most  important 
antiphonaries,  breviaries,  psalters,  lectionaries,  re- 
sponsories,  hymnaries,  sacramentaries,  and  ordines 
belonging  to  the  Roman  churches  and  the  Vatican 
library.  These  were  taken  as  the  basis  of  the  cor- 
rections introduced,  while  the  rite  as  regulated  by 
recent  canons  was  never  set  aside. 

As  we  have  seen  when  describing  the  contents  of 


148  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  new  Breviary,  the  commission  turned  its  attention 
to  the  correction  of  the  legends  of  the  saints  in  the 
second  nocturn.  It  made  a  very  judicious  selection 
of  passages  taken  from  the  works  of  the  Fathers,  and 
showed  great  reserve  in  admitting  festivals  of  saints, 
in  order  to  avoid  too  great  reduction  of  the  Sunday 
and  ferial  office.  The  commission  did  not  feel  bound 
to  accept  all  Caraffa's  preliminary  labours,  as  we  can 
see  from  its  appointing  a  new  legend  for  the  office  of 
St.  Agnes. 

II.  The  Publication  of  the  new  Breviary. 

1.  The  bull  Quod  a  nobis,  dated  9th  July  1568,  is 
to  be  found  in  all  editions  of  the  Breviary,  usually  at 
the  commencement  of  the  volume  for  the  winter 
quarter.  It  states  in  substance  the  reasons  which 
moved  Rome  to  undertake  the  publication  of  an 
official  text  of  the  church's  public  prayer,  the  labours 
expended  on  its  correction,  and  entirely  withdraws 
the  authorization  accorded  to  the  Breviary  of  Quig- 
nonez  and  to  every  other  Breviary  which  cannot 
plead  an  existence  of  two  centuries  in  its  favour,  or  an 
express  approbation  of  the  Holy  See.  In  the  case  of 
churches  who  have  truly  ancient  customs  of  their  own, 
freedom  is  given  to  the  bishop  and  chapter  to  adopt 
the  new  Breviary  by  common  consent.  All  other 
churches  must  adopt  the  Breviary  of  Pius  V.  within 
a  certain  period ;  i.e.  in  Rome,  one  month  after  publi- 
cation ;  in  the  rest  of  Italy,  at  the  end  of  three  months  ; 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pitts   V.  149 

in  other  Catholic  countries,  at  the  end  of  six  months. 
The  regulations  relating  to  the  manner  of  promulgation, 
authorization  for  printing,  and  the  prohibition  of  all 
alterations  follow. 

2.  The  contents  and  arrangement  of  the  new 
Breviary: — The  preliminary  pages  indicate  how  to 
calculate  beforehand  the  date  of  Easter  and  the  other 
festivals  dependent  thereon  ;  the  same  tables  serve 
also  for  determining  the  date  of  events  in  the  past. 
The  corrections  in  the  computations  in  the  calendar 
and  in  the  astronomical  calculations  were  not  happy  ; 
the  error  due  to  the  calculation  of  the  lunar  cycle  had 
led  to  misplacing  the  golden  numbers  and  the  ad- 
ditional day  in  leap  year,  but  the  attempt  to  remedy 
this  by  altering  the  golden  number  only  made  matters 
worse;  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  fact  that  the 
Julian  year  was  about  ten  days  behind.  These  mis- 
takes soon  disappeared  (1582)  after  the  reform  of  the 
calendar  by  Gregory  XIII. 

(A)  The  calendar  follows. — Allowance  was  made 
for  the  ferial  office  in  order  that  it  might  be  possible 
to  recite  more  frequently  the  psalter  in  the  course  of  a 
week.  Dom  Gueranger  thinks  it  was  desired  to 
leave  days  free  for  new  saints  in  the  future  ;  in  the 
new  calendar,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  half  the  year  is 
left  free  for  (1)  feasts  of  our  Lord:  Christmas, 
Circumcision,  Epiphany,  Passion  Week  and  Holy 
Week,  Easter,  Ascension,  Pentecost,  and  Corpus 
Christi,  with  their  octaves  and  vigils  ;  (2)  the  feast  of 


150  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  Holy  Cross,  Transfiguration,  Dedication  of  the 
Church,  and  for  the  offices  of  Sunday  and  the  feria  ; 
the  other  half  of  the  year  was  left  for  festivals  of  our 
Lady  and  the  saints.  There  were  about  sixty  doubles, 
comprising  the  mysteries  celebrated  in  honour  of 
our  Lady — the  same  as  at  present,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple — the  festivals  of 
apostles  and  evangelists,  and  those  of  other  saints, 
which  were  not  so  numerous  as  at  the  present  day. 
Certain  feasts,  such  as  those  of  St.  Joachim,  St.  Francis 
of  Paula,  St.  Bernardine,  St.  Antony  of  Padua,  St. 
Louis  of  Toulouse,  were  entirely  suppressed,  while 
others  were  reduced  from  being  doubles  or  semi- 
doubles  to  a  lower  rank,  or  merely  commemorated, 
such  as  St.  Nicholas,  St.  Thomas  a  Becket,  St.  Hilary, 
St.  Bonaventure,  and  others  now  no  longer  in 
existence. 

There  were  from  thirty  to  forty  semi-doubles,  and 
thirty-three  commemorations  or  feasts  and  simple 
offices  ;  some  of  these  latter  were  placed  on  days 
when  the  festival  of  another  saint  was  celebrated,  as, 
for  example,  the  commemoration  of  St.  Mennas, 
martyr,  comes  on  St.  Martin's  day,  the  nth 
November.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  festivals,  as 
the  Nativity  and  Assumption  of  our  Blessed  Lady,  the 
Nativity  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  the  festivals  of 
SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  St.  Lawrence,  and  All  Saints  had 
an  octave,  during  part  of  which  the  festival  of  no 
other   saint   was  celebrated.     For   the  simple  feasts 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pius    V.  151 

and  offices,  the  office  was  taken  principally  from  the 
psalter,  one  or  two  lections  taken  from  the  life  of 
the  saint  were  read,  and  a  prayer  was  recited  in  his 
honour.  In  this  manner  more  than  two  hundred  days 
in  the  year  were  kept  clear  for  the  ferial  office.  Care 
was  taken  that  the  offices  for  saints'  days,  usually  con- 
sisting of  only  the  lections  of  the  second  nocturn, 
should  have  no  proper  hymns  or  antiphons  of  their 
own. 

In  some  editions  of  the  Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V., 
the  calendar  was  placed  after  the  general  rubrics,  but 
it  now  precedes  in  all  editions. 

(B)  The  general  rubrics  were  at  that  time  a  novelty, 
for  the  old  Breviaries  had  no  such  detailed  instruc- 
tions embracing  the  whole  office :  they  were  framed 
after  a  Directorium  officii,  published  in  1540  by  an 
Observantine  called  Louis  Ciconiolano,  and  approved 
by  Paul  III.  After  their  insertion  in  the  Breviary, 
they  were  corrected  and  added  to  under  Clement 
VIII.  and  Urban  VIII.  (1623 -1644),  and  under 
Leo  XIII.  they  were  modified  as  far  as  concerns  the 
transference  of  feasts  and  the  weekly  votive  offices  ad 
libitum]  with  these  exceptions  they  remain  as  they 
were  in  1568.  "  It  is  a  unique  fact  in  the  history  of 
legislation,"  says  Dom  Gueranger,  "  that,  during  the 
three  centuries  since  the  establishment  in  Rome  of  the 
tribunal  known  as  the  Congregation  of  Rites  for  solv- 
ing difficulties  arising  from  the  rubrics  of  both  the 
Breviary  and   Missal,  after   more  than  six   thousand 


152  The  Roman  Breviary 

consultations  and  answers  have  been  printed,  the 
judges  should  never  once  have  deviated  from  the  text 
of  the  law  in  their  decisions." ! 

In  thirty-seven  sections,  the  rubrics  of  the  Breviary 
deal  with  the  office  in  general,  and  of  the  different 
ranks  of  festivals,  of  its  parts,  i.e.  the  canonical  hours 
of  which  it  is  composed,  and  then  of  the  constituent 
part  of  the  hours  themselves.  We  beg  leave  to  make 
here  a  short  digression  with  regard  to  the  different 
rank  of  festivals,  sufficient  being  said  elsewhere  in  the 
course  of  this  little  book  about  the  different  parts  of 
the  hours  and  their  constituent  elements.  It  was 
about  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  that,  owing 
to  the  increase  of  saints'  days,  a  distinction  was  made 
as  to  the  degree  of  solemnity  with  which  they  were  to 
be  celebrated.  The  majority  were  merely  mentioned  in 
the  reading  of  the  Martyrology  at  Prime  ;  others  were 
commemorated  at  Vespers  and  in  the  Night  Office ; 
others,  again,  regarded  as  "simples,"  had  one  or  two 
lections  taken  from  the  saint's  life,  a  collect,  and  some 
antiphons  and  hymns ;  the  more  important  had  an 
office  of  their  own,  which  was  either  a  "  semi-double  n 
or  a  "double."  About  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth 
centuries,  the  custom  arose  at  Rome  and  elsewhere 
of  celebrating  "  simple  "  feasts  as  "  semi-doubles,,;  i.e. 
they  were  provided  with  nine  lections  and  three 
nocturns,  and,  in  the  case  of  their  concurrence  with 
other  festivals  of  a  higher  rank,  they  were  transferred 
1  Institutions  liturgiques^  i.  pp.  371-372. 


The  Breviary  of  St.   Phis    V.  153 

to  the  first  free  day,  and  even  from  one  year  to  an- 
other. The Breviarium Pianum  remedied  this  awkward 
arrangement  by  suppressing  or  reducing  to  a  lower 
rank,  as  we  have  said,  a  certain  number  of  feasts,  and 
secondly,  by  deciding  that  "simples"  should  not  be 
transferred,  but  that  their  office  should  by  preference 
be  that  of  the  feria,  as  it  stands  in  the  psalter,  and 
that  their  lections  should  be  taken  from  the  life  of 
the  saint,  and,  above  all,  from  Holy  Scripture.  This 
arrangement  still  holds  good,  as  may  be  seen  from 
the  general  rubrics  (Nos.  3  and  26). 

The  chief  reason  which,  before  the  Council  of  Trent, 
had  led  to  the  increase  of  doubles  or  semi-doubles 
over  simples  was  that,  when  the  office  for  the  day  was 
ferial  or  simple,,  there  had  to  be  added  to  it  the  office 
of  the  dead,  the  little  office  of  our  Lady,  and  on 
certain  days  the  seven  penitential  or  the  fifteen 
gradual  psalms  as  well,  along  with  a  large  number  of 
additional  prayers.1  In  order  not  to  increase  the 
amount  of  the  office  through  the  establishment  of  the 
ferial  and  simple  offices,  it  was  decided  to  suppress 
these  accessory  additions  as  of  obligation.  They  still 
remained  in  the  new  Breviary  to  be  said  according  to 
devotion,  or  as  of  obligation  under  certain  circum- 
stances in  choro,  as  in  monasteries  and  cathedral 
chapters,  but  only  on  the  first  free  day  in  each  month, 
on  the  Mondays  in  Advent  and  Lent,  on  certain 
Vigils  and  in  Embertide  (see  the  general  rubrics, 
1  See  above,  p.  105. 


154  The  Roman  Breviary 

No.  37,  and  the  special  rubrics  prefixed  to  these 
offices  at  the  end  of  the  Roman  Breviary).  The 
lengthy  ferial  prayers  were  no  longer  to  be  recited 
at  either  the  Little  Hours  or  Matins,  but  only  at 
Lauds,  Vespers,  and  Prime  during  Advent  and  Lent, 
on  vigils  and  in  Embertide.  Compline,  Terce,  Sext, 
and  None  had  only  two  versicles,  with  the  Pater 
Noster  (with  the  Creed  in  addition  at  Compline),  as 
prayers  when  the  office  was  simple  (see  the  general 
rubrics,  No.  34).  Another  change  for  the  better  had 
to  do  with  the  octaves,  which,  since  the  thirteenth 
century,  had  enormously  increased.  The  Breviarium 
Pianum  suppressed  the  octaves  belonging  to  festivals 
of  Franciscan  Saints — St.  Francis,  St.  Clare,  St. 
Antony  of  Padua,  St.  Bernardine,  St.  Louis  of 
Toulouse  ;  those  of  the  Conception  of  our  Lady  and 
the  Visitation,  on  account  of  Advent,  and  the  octave 
of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul.  It  then  laid  down  the 
following  rule : — (a)  For  feasts  of  our  Lord,  the 
octaves  of  Easter  and  Pentecost  were  specially 
privileged,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  festivals ; 
the  octaves  of  Christmas,  Epiphany,  Corpus  Christ! 
were  simply  privileged,  only  allowing  of  the  celebra- 
tion within  them  of  a  festival  of  high  rank — that  of 
the  Epiphany  excludes  these  festivals,  with  the 
exception  of  the  festival  of  the  Patron  Saint,  by 
authorization  of  the  Holy  See ;  finally,  the  octave  of 
the  Ascension  was  simple  or  not  privileged.  The 
eighth  day  was  to  be  kept  as  a  double,  provided  no 


The  Bi-cviary  of  St.   Phis    V.  155 

special  mystery  was  commemorated  on  it  such  as 
the  Circumcision  or  the  Holy  Trinity.  The  Sunday 
falling  within  the  octave  was  to  be  kept  as  a  semi- 
double  with  a  collect,  versicles,  and  antiphons  to  the 
Magnificat  and  Benedictus,  a  homily  on  the  gospel, 
chapters  at  the  Little  Hours,  special  lections  at  the 
first  and  second  nocturns.  The  six  days  within  the 
octave  were  to  be  celebrated  as  semi-doubles  or 
simples,  sometimes,  when  privileged,  to  the  exclusion 
of  other  festivals,  and  only  allowing  memorials  from 
the  fourth  day  onwards,  sometimes  only  yielding 
precedence  to  feasts  of  the  first  and  second  class,  as, 
for  example,  the  octave  of  the  Ascension. 

(b)  For  festivals  of  saints  with  an  octave,  it  was 
allowable  during  the  octave  to  celebrate  an  office  of 
the  rank  of  a  double  with  a  commemoration  of  the 
octave  ;  the  eighth  day  was  to  be  a  double,  and  the 
Sunday  within  the  octave  was  to  have  neither  prayers 
or  suffrages ;  there  were  to  be  no  octaves  in  Lent. 
Generally  speaking,  Sundays  were  to  be  kept  as 
semi-doubles,  but  would  give  place  to  a  double,  except 
that  a  memorial  of  the  Sunday  was  always  to  be 
made  in  such  a  case.  The  Sundays  in  Advent  and 
from  Septuagesima  to  Low  Sunday  inclusive  were  to 
be  privileged,  and  so  not  give  place  to  festivals  of  the 
rank  of  doubles  (see  general  rubrics,  Nos.  4  and  7). 
One  point  of  interest  in  connection  with  the  general 
rubrics  (Nos.  13,  15,  16,  17)  may  be  noticed  here:  the 
Ave  Maria  appears  for  the  first  time  with  the  addition 


156  The  Roman  Breviary 

Sancta  Maria,  Mater  Dei,  ora  pro  nobis,  etc.  In  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  only  the  first 
part,  ending  with  fructus  ventris  tui,  was  recited ;  in 
the  fifteenth  century  the  word  Jesus  was  added,  and 
it  was  in  this  form  that  the  Benedictines  of  Lorraine, 
in  1503,  decided  to  add  the  angelic  salutation  to  the 
Pater  Noster  at  all  the  canonical  hours.  The  form 
now  in  use  is  found  in  some  Breviaries,  at  least  in 
France,  from  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  or  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  St.  Pius  V.  gave  it  official 
sanction,  and  imposed  its  recitation  upon  the  whole 
church  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  divine  office 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  Little  Hours  and  Vespers. 

C.  The  psalter  was  little  altered  either  in  text  or 
arrangement  in  the  Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V.  The 
ancient  distribution  is  maintained  except  in  the  case 
of  Prime ;  every  Sunday,  before  the  psalm  Beati 
Immaculati  (118)  six  other  psalms  were  said,  i.e.  psalms 
21-25,  and  117  Confitemini.1  From  henceforth  these 
psalms  were  to  be  distributed  over  the  first  five  days 
of  the  week,  one  for  each  day  (see  the  Roman 
Breviary ;  Dominica  ad  Primam  and  hi  feriali  officio 
ad  Primam). 

As  regards  the  text,2  or  version  of  the  psalms,  the 
Psalterium  Gallicanum  was  in  general  use,  while  the 
Psalterium  Romanian  was  used  in  St  Peter's,  in  St. 
Mark's   at  Venice,  and  at  Milan  ;   the  older  version 

1  See  above,  p.  66. 

2  See  above,  pp  62  seq. 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pius   V.  157 

still  supplied  the  words  for  the  antiphons  and  responds, 
because  of  the  difficulty  which  a  change  of  words 
would  have  caused  to  the  musical  setting.  By  the 
express  desire  of  Pius  V.,  the  commission  marked 
the  accented  syllables  with  an  accent,  in  order  to 
prevent  mispronunciation  of  the  Latin. 

D.  The  Proper  " de  Tempore"  : — The  liturgical  year 
preserves  its  essential  arrangement  and  character  in 
the  Breviarium  Planum.  Three  great  cycles  are  dis- 
tinguishable :  (1)  Advent,  Christmas,  and  Epiphany; 
(2)  around  Easter  are  grouped  the  mysteries  which 
precede  and  follow  this  great  feast,  from  Septuagesima 
to  the  octave  of  the  Ascension;  (3)  lastly,  Pentecost, 
with  the  festivals  immediately  following,  and  the 
intervening  season  extending  to  Advent.  The  litur- 
gical weeks  and  days  are  in  the  same  order  as  in 
the  older  Breviaries.  The  chief  alteration  is  in  the 
lections  from  Scripture,  legends,  and  homilies. 

(a)  Holy  Scripture :  —  Attention  is  given  to  the 
principal  desire  of  Quignonez  —  Matins  are  never 
recited  without  a  lection  from  Scripture,  either  from 
the  Old  or  New  Testament.  In  the  offices  with  nine 
lections,  the  three  first  are  taken  from  Holy  Scripture, 
and  are  either  proper  to  the  feast,  or  from  the  com- 
mon, or  from  those  appointed  for  the  day  :  in  the 
last  case  the  lections  are  said  to  be  taken  de  Scriptura 
occurrente.  In  the  offices  with  three  lections,  ex- 
cepting greater  ferias  and  the  days  of  Easter  and 
Pentecost  which  have  a  gospel  and  homily  of  their 


158  The  Roman  Breviary 

own,  these  lections,  or  the  two  first  at  any  rate,  are 
still  taken  from  Scripture.  The  order  observed  in 
the  reading  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  agreeing  with 
the  prescriptions  of  the  Corpus  juris  canonici,  is 
maintained,  and  so  the  book  of  Genesis  is  commenced 
on  Septuagesima  Sunday.  "  It  was  only  the  books 
of  Paralipomenon,1  Esdras,  and  Baruch,"  says  Dom 
Gueranger,2  "  which  found  no  place,  but  the  choice  of 
passages  to  be  read  was  made  with  so  much  taste 
and  precision  that,  on  the  whole,  they  may  be  said 
to  give  quite  as  good  a  view  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
as  that  given  in  the  Breviarium  Sanctce  Cruris, 
which  professed  to  read  the  Bible  through  in  the 
course  of  the  year — a  profession,  however,  which  it 
did  not  fulfil." 

The  variations  as  regards  Easter  caused  the  Sundays 
between  Epiphany  and  Septuagesima,  and  between 
Pentecost  and  Advent,  to  vary  in  number ;  an  office 
was  then  drawn  up  for  several  Sundays,  which  can 
be  inserted  when  required  before  Septuagesima  or 
Advent  by  inserting  in  the  first  nocturn  either  the 
continuation  of  St.  Paul's  epistles,  or  the  continua- 
tion of  the  Prophets  —  these  Sundays  being  called 
"  intercalary/'  The  double  recitation  of  Matins  for 
one  and  the  same  feast,  in  cases  where  it  may  still 
have  remained  in  force,  was  now  definitely  suppressed. 

(/3)  The  Legends : — It  is  here  that  the  most  striking 

1  They  are  used,  however,  in  the  office  for  the  Dedication. 

2  Institut.  liturgiques,  i.  p.  416. 


The  Breviary  of  St.   Phis   V.  159 

changes  were  effected.  While  the  commission  did 
not  succeed  in  eliminating  every  passage  to  which 
the  better  instructed  historical  criticism  of  succeeding 
ages  could  take  exception,  still  many  apocryphal 
stories  were  cut  out.  After  earnest  deliberation,  it 
was  decided  to  select  from  the  biographies  of  the 
saints  and  other  sources  only  the  most  authentic 
and  characteristic  passages,  and  to  recast  them  in  a 
more  suitable  form.  The  commission  did  not  feel 
bound  to  give  the  names  of  the  authors  of  these 
biographies  or  relations,  except  when  they  are  taken 
from  the  writings  of  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Gregory 
the  Great,  considering  the  name  of  the  pope  under 
whom  the  Breviary  was  published  sufficient  guarantee  ; 
it  was  not  until  later,  in  the  reign  of  Clement  VIII., 
that  the  sources  from  which  the  legends  are  drawn 
were  more  particularly  specified.  Quignonez  had 
helped  to  throw  light  on  the  legends  of  the  saints, 
and  the  commission  of  Pius  IV.  and  Pius  V.  did  not 
hesitate  to  avail  themselves  of  the  materials  he  had 
collected.  Eighty-four  of  these  legends  were  sub- 
jected to  repeated  examinations  of  considerable  length, 
after  having  been  carefully  compared  with  these 
sources  and  corrected  ;  many  were  completely  recast. 
The  aim  of  the  commissioners  was  to  foster  piety,  to 
select  the  most  edifying  passages  of  the  biographies, 
to  give  them  a  style  at  once  liturgical  and  charac- 
teristic ;  the  legends  were  not  to  be  too  dry  or 
monotonous,  but  sufficiently  long  and  varied.     ^Egidio 


160  The  .Roman  Breviary 

Foscarari,  Bishop  of  Modena,  and  the  able  Latinist 
Poggiano,  succeeded  in  solving  these  problems. 

(y)  Homilies  and  passages  from  the  Fathers: — The 
old  Breviaries  had  many  homilies  and  sermons  of  the 
Fathers  ;  Paul  IV.  in  his  revision  replaced  by  others 
such  as  seemed  to  him  unsuitable;  the  commission 
felt  satisfied  with  the  work  accomplished  by  this  pope 
without  making  any  further  essential  alteration. 
Dom  Gueranger  says  that  the  selection  has  been 
made  "  generally  with  discretion.  Although  some 
passages  are  taken  from  works  accounted  apocryphal 
by  modern  criticism,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
in  those  days  the  great  and  correct  editions  of  the 
Fathers  were  not  in  existence.  No  fair-minded  man 
would  blame  Baronius  and  Bellarmine  for  im- 
perfections of  this  kind  found  in  their  immortal 
works."  l  Dom  Morin  says  the  same  when  he  states, 
in  an  article  in  the  Revue  Benedictine  (1892,  p.  270, 
Les  lemons  apocryphes  du  Breviaire  romairi),  that  "at  the 
time  of  St.  Pius's  reform  the  general  aim  was  to  sup- 
press everything  in  the  Breviary  not  undoubtedly 
authentic,"  although  the  work  admitted  of  improve- 
ment, and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  satisfactorily  im- 
proved under  the  successors  of  St.  Pius  V.,  for  "  the 
magnificent  editions  of  the  Benedictines  of  St.  Maur 
have  classed  as  apocryphal  only  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  the  passages  admitted  by  Gavanti 
under  Clement  VIII."  Unfortunately,  "in  most  of 
1  Institutions  liturgiques,  i.  p.  416. 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Puts    V.  161 

the  offices  recently  added  to  the  Breviary  the  same 
amount  of  care  does  not  seem  to  have  been  taken  in 
choosing  only  such  sermons  and  homilies  as  were 
admittedly  authentic."  Dom  Morin  brings  forward 
several  proofs  in  support  of  this  last  assertion,  in 
which  one  may  see  an  indirect  homage  paid  to 
the  Breviarium  Planum.  Further  on  we  shall 
see  the  criticisms  which  have  been  made  on  this 
point. 

3.  It  now  remains  for  us  to  say  a  few  words  upon 
the  advantages  obtained  by  the  publication  of  St.  Pius. 
The  Catholic  world  was  not  slow  to  recognize  them — 
a  chorus  of  satisfaction  arose  on  all  sides,  and  it  was 
realized  that  the  new  Breviary  put  an  end  to  the 
complaints  which  had  been  made  regarding  the  state 
of  disorder  into  which  the  office  had  fallen.  The 
arrangement  of  the  Breviary  was  considerably  simpli- 
fied ;  the  psalter  per  hebdomadam,  the  office  de 
tempore,  and  the  readings  from  Holy  Scripture,  were 
better  arranged;  the  selection  of  Scriptural  lections 
and  passages  from  the  homilies  might  well  pass  as 
excellent,  for,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  homilies  are 
the  choicest  passages  from  patristic  literature,  and  the 
lections  from  Holy  Scripture  give  an  excellent 
abridgement  of  the  book  from  which  they  are  taken  ; 
the  hymns,  antiphons,  responds,  versicles,  and  prayers 
are,  save  in  some  offices  of  recent  date,  essentially 
the  same  as  those  of  the   hymnaries,  antiphonaries, 

psalters,    responsories,    and    sacramentaries    of    the 

1 1 


1 62  The  Roman  Breviary 

eighth,  ninth,  and  thirteenth  centuries.1  The  new 
Breviary  was  thus  conservative  in  tone,  preserving 
the  tradition  of  more  than  a  thousand  years,  while 
satisfying  to  some  extent  the  requirements  of  modern 
times.  Certainly  there  are  still  some  things  which 
might  be  altered  with  advantage,  such  as  the  long 
Sunday  office,  so  burdensome  for  priests  occupied 
with  the  cure  of  souls,  some  legends  which  cannot 
stand  the  test  of  criticism,  some  passages  from  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers  which  might  have  been  chosen 
with  more  care  ;  but  these,  after  all,  are  matters  of 
detail ;  as  a  whole,  the  work  is  excellent  and  has 
never  been  improved  on.  Such  was  the  praise  given 
to  it  in  1836  by  the  future  Cardinal  Newman,  then  a 
Protestant  clergyman.  "  There  is,"  he  said,  "  so  much 
of  excellence  and  beauty  in  the  services  of  the 
Breviary,  that  were  it  skilfully  set  before  the 
Protestant  by  Roman  controversialists  as  a  book  of 
devotions  received  in  their  communion,  it  would 
undoubtedly  raise  a  prejudice  in  their  favour,  if  he 
were  ignorant  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case  and 
but  ordinarily  candid  and  unprejudiced."2 

The  bull  authorizing  the  publication  concludes  with 
an  express  order  to  all  and  each  of  the  patriarchs, 
archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  and  other  prelates  to 
introduce  this  Breviary  into  their  churches,  and  to 
remove  all  other  Breviaries,  even  those  established  by 

1  See  Tommasi,  Patr.  Lat.,  lxxviii. 

2  Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  75 — The  Roman  Breviary,  p.  1. 


The  Breviary  of  St.   Pius    V.  163 

their  private  authority,  and  commands  them,  as  well 
as  all  other  priests,  clerics,  seculars,  and  regulars  upon 
whom  has  been  imposed  the  obligation  of  reciting  the 
divine  office,  to  take  care  to  recite  it,  both  in  choir 
and  elsewhere,  according  to  the  form  contained  in  this 
Breviary.  The  obligation  to  recite  the  Little  Office  of 
our  Lady,  and  the  office  of  the  Dead,  and  the  peni- 
tential and  gradual  psalms  was  confined  to  certain 
days,  in  order  that  the  clergy  might  be  more  zealous 
in  their  recitation  of  the  reformed  Breviary,  but 
indulgences  are  granted  to  those  whose  devotion 
moves  them  to  continue  these  practices;  these 
additional  offices  and  prayers  form  a  supplement  to 
the  new  work.  "  Rome,"  concludes  Dom  Gueranger, 
"  could  not  have  applied  a  more  efficacious  or  wise 
remedy  to  the  evil  of  liturgical  anarchy."  l 

III.  The  Reception  accorded  to  the  New  Breviary. 

As  soon  as  the  Breviarium  Planum  was  published, 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  received  from  all  sides  ex- 
pressions of  joy  called  forth  by  this  reform ;  every- 
where it  was  adopted  without  delay. 

Italy  .-—All  the  churches  in  Rome  adopted  it  at 
once  ;  the  Vatican  Basilica  alone  made  some  reserves 
by  continuing  the  use  of  the  ancient  Italic  psalter 
and  offices  of  the  canonized  popes  and  other  saints 
whose  bodies  are  preserved  within  its  walls.  Among 
the  religious  orders,  of  which  Rome  is  the  common 
1  Institutions  liturgiques,  i.  p.  423. 


164  The  Roman  Bi'eviary 

home,  there  were  some  who  preserved  the  ancient 
form  of  the  divine  office,  being  able  to  plead  a 
prescription  not  only  of  two  hundred  years,  as  the 
bull  required,  but  of  nearly  a  thousand  years ;  others, 
such  as  the  mendicant  orders,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Dominicans  and  Carmelites,  reformed  their  offices  in 
accordance  with  the  office  of  St.  Pius  V.,  which,  in  its 
turn,  was  nothing  else  than  a  purified  edition  of  the 
Breviary  of  the  Friars  Minor  ;  the  Franciscans  and 
other  branches  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis  added  the 
proper  offices  of  the  saints  of  their  order,  but  the 
Capuchins  refused  to  do  this,  in  order  to  agree  as 
closely  as  possible  with  the  Roman  office.  The  orders 
of  Clerks  Regular,  under  the  powerful  influence  of 
the  Theatines,  without  exception  followed  the  new 
edition.  The  Jesuits,  by  the  wish  of  their  founder, 
were  always  to  keep  to  the  form  of  the  office  observed 
by  the  Roman  Church,  and  other  religious  families  of 
the  same  kind  were  led  to  follow  their  example  by 
the  nature  of  their  constitution.  Finally,  the  orders 
of  Canons  Regular — with  the  exception  of  the  Premon- 
stratensians,  whose  office  is  a  mixture  of  Roman  and 
Parisian — hastened  to  accept  the  reformed  liturgy 
everywhere.  The  orders  of  religious  women  followed 
suit. 

The  church  of  Milan 1  was  then  ruled  by  St.  Charles 

1  For  the  Ambrosian  rite  see  the  article  by  P.  Lejay,  vi., 
Lannee  liturgique,  in  the  Dictiotmaire  d  Archeologie  chretienne 
et  de  liturgique,  i.  1393  et  seqq. 


The  Breviary  of  St.   Pius    V.  165 

Borromeo,  whose  intercession  on  behalf  of  the 
Ambrosian  liturgy  was  crowned  with  success.  When 
the  diocesan  synod  of  Milan  in  1568  declared  in 
favour  of  maintaining  this  liturgy,  St.  Charles  availed 
himself  of  the  liberty  allowed  by  the  bull  Quod  a 
nobis,  and  undertook  to  revise  and  re-edit  the  service- 
books  of  the  Ambrosian  rite,  and  a  commission  was 
appointed  to  carry  this  into  effect ;  the  calendar,  psalter 
(Psalterium  Romanum)  and  hymns  were  revised,  and 
permission  to  make  some  changes  was  obtained  from 
Rome.  When,  somewhat  later,  St.  Charles  obtained 
leave  from  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  to  introduce  the 
Ambrosian  rite  into  parts  of  the  diocese  where  it  had 
not  hitherto  been  in  use,  he  met  with  opposition  in 
the  two  towns  of  Monza  and  Trevi,  and  an  appeal 
against  his  action  was  even  sent  to  Rome.  Without 
being  the  least  disturbed  by  this,  St.  Charles  defended 
the  customs  of  his  church,  and  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing the  wished-for  uniformity  throughout  his  arch- 
diocese. 

The  case  of  the  church  and  province  of  Aquileia 
was  not  quite  parallel,  for  the  rite  there  in  use  was 
formed  by  a  fusion  of  the  Roman  liturgy  with  a 
certain  number  of  customs  and  texts  taken  from  other 
liturgies.  Some  hesitation  was  felt  about  going  to 
the  expense  of  reprinting  the  Breviaries,  which  were 
much  needed,  and  the  patriarch  accordingly  asked  and 
obtained  permission  from  the  Holy  See  to  use  the 
Roman  Breviary,  but  only  out  of  choir  and  until  those 


1 66  The  Roman  Breviary 

of  the  Aquileian  rite  should  be  reprinted ;  they  never 
were  reprinted,  and,  ten  years  later,  the  Roman 
service-books  were  definitely  adopted.  The  church  of 
Como,  subject  to  the  patriarch  of  Aquileia  although 
situated  in  the  duchy  of  Milan,  was  shortly  afterwards 
obliged  to  adopt  the  Roman  rite  by  Pope  Clement 
VIII.;  this  did  not  involve  much  difficulty,  as  the 
difference  between  the  Roman  and  Aquileian  Brevi- 
aries was  insignificant. 

From  these  examples  one  sees  that  Rome  knew 
how  to  proceed  with  caution  in  the  application  of  the 
regulations  of  St.  Pius  V.  in  cases  where  ancient  cus- 
toms were  already  in  possession.  The  regulations  of 
St.  Pius  were  not  slow  in  winning  their  way  almost 
universally;  every  year  saw  some  fresh  church  join  the 
others  in  the  adoption  of  one  and  the  same  Breviary. 
By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  whole  of  Italy, 
except  where  the  Ambrosian  rite  prevailed,  had  fallen 
in  with  the  intention  of  the  Holy  See  by  adopting  the 
liturgical  customs  of  Rome. 

Spain  : — The  Spanish  peninsula,  in  spite  of  the  op- 
position of  some  cathedrals,  followed  suit;  thanks  to 
the  expressed  will  of  Philip  II.,  who  was  full  of  zeal 
for  the  Catholic  faith,  Roman  service-books  found 
their  way  to  the  vast  colonies  which  looked  up  to  him 
as  their  ruler.  By  way  of  compensation,  Gregory 
XIII.  granted  leave  to  the  churches  of  Spain  to  cele- 
brate the  feasts  of  a  number  of  local  Saints.  Portugal 
followed  the  example  of  Spain,  although  in  the  church 


The  Breviary  of  St.   Pius    V.  167 

of  Braga,  then  governed  by  Dom  Bartholomew  of  the 
Martyrs,  the  metropolitan  chapter  opposed  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Roman  Breviary,  on  the  ground  of  the 
expense  caused  by  the  purchase  of  the  new  books. 
Then  there  were  disputes  as  to  the  correct  text  of  the 
Breviary  in  use,  which  had  been  tampered  with  by 
some  of  the  suffragan  bishops,  and  an  appeal  to  Rome 
became  necessary  for  leave  to  bring  out  a  new  edition  ; 
the  archbishop  seized  this  opportunity  for  inserting 
passages  taken  from  the  new  Roman  Breviary,and  thus, 
to  some  extent  at  least,  bringing  about  its  adoption. 

France : — At  first  the  church  of  France  worked  in 
concert  with  the  Holy  See  in  bringing  about  liturgical 
uniformity  within  its  boundaries.  We  have  seen 
already  what  the  University  of  Paris  thought  in  the 
sixteenth  century  of  liturgical  innovations,  and  the 
reception  it  gave  to  the  Breviary  of  Quignonez. 
When  the  Breviary  and  Missal  of  St.  Pius  V.  appeared, 
the  University,  along  with  the  whole  French  church, 
at  once  recognized  their  superiority  over  the  service- 
books  used  within  the  kingdom,  and  provincial  synods 
proclaimed  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  bull 
Quod  a  nobis.  At  the  Council  of  Rouen  in  1 58 1  it  was 
said  that  "  the  bishops  must  set  about  the  printing 
and  correction  of  the  service-books  of  their  different 
dioceses  in  agreement  with  the  constitutions  of  Pius 
V.  of  holy  memory  concerning  the  Breviary  and 
Missal  published  and  revised  in  accordance  with  the 
decree  of  the  Holy  Council  of  Trent."     This  decree 


1 68  The  Roman  Breviary 

was  carried  into  effect  as  far  as  concerns  Norman 
Breviaries  printed  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  as  we  see  from  those  of  Bayeux,  Lisieux, 
Evreux,  and  Avranches,  for,  with  the  exception  of 
the  office  of  the  Saints  belonging  to  the  diocese  and 
a  few  other  peculiarities,  they  entirely  correspond 
to  the  existing  Roman  Breviary.  The  Council  of 
Rheims  in  1583  exhorted  the  bishops  of  the  province 
to  examine  the  Breviaries,  Missals,  and  other  service- 
books,  and  if  they  found  them  badly  drawn  up,  or 
not  altogether  conformable  to  piety,  to  have  them  at 
once  reformed  and  reprinted  at  the  expense  of  the 
diocese,  in  accordance  with  the  usage  of  the  Roman 
Church,  in  obedience  to  the  constitution  of  Pius  V. 
The  service-books  of  that  date  bear  witness  to  the 
fidelity  with  which  this  rule  was  observed,  especially 
in  the  dioceses  of  Amiens  and  Noyon.  The  Council 
of  Bayeux,  of  the  same  date,  decreed  the  adoption  of 
the  Breviary  and  Missal  of  St.  Pius  V.  pure  and 
simple,  because  of  the  scarceness  of  the  diocesan  books 
and  because  it  would  be  too  long  and  difficult  a  task 
to  correct  them ;  it  ordered  the  exclusive  use  of  the 
Roman  books  both  in  public  and  private.  This  went 
beyond  the  directions  of  the  Councils  of  Rouen  and 
Rheims,  which  had  at  least  preserved  the  name  of  the 
diocese  at  the  head  of  their  Breviaries,  but  in  many 
places  the  Roman  service-books  were  thus  adopted 
pure  and  simple,  to  avoid  confusion  and  expense. 
The  bishops  of  the  Council  of  Tours  in   1583  had  no 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Phis    V.  169 

doubt  whatever  as  to  the  obligation  of  everywhere 
observing  the  constitution  of  St.  Pius  V.,  although  up 
to  that  date  there  had  been  no  sign  of  the  promulga- 
tion, still  less  of  the  acceptance,  of  this  bull  in  France, 
but  they  did  not  all  set  to  work  in  exactly  the  same 
manner,  for  the  bishops  of  Brittany  gave  up  all  their 
ancient  customs,  and  even  the  proper  of  the  Saints  of 
each  diocese,  while  the  bishops  of  Tours,  Le  Mans, 
and  Angers  reprinted  their  Breviaries  under  the  dio- 
cesan title,  with  the  addition  of  the  words  "  ad  romani 
forniam"  The  Fathers  of  the  Council  of  Bourges 
were  of  opinion  that  the  liturgical  reform  carried  out 
in  Rome  had  reference  to  the  whole  West,  although, 
as  at  Tours,  they  did  not  agree  as  to  the  manner  of 
putting  the  pontifical  decree  into  force.  The  pro- 
vincial council  of  Aix  decided  that,  in  order  to  make 
use  of  the  books  already  in  use,  they  should  be  cor- 
rected in  accordance  with  the  Roman  rite,  at  the 
expense  of  the  clergy  of  the  diocese.  At  Toulouse, 
it  was  agreed  that  *  for  the  establishment  of  perfect 
concord  amongst  Christians,  the  canonical  hours  were 
to  be  recited  both  publicly  and  privately  according 
to  the  Roman  Breviary."  Finally,  at  Narbonne,  the 
bishops  expressly  stated  that  they  received  the  bull  of 
St.  Pius  V.  and  declared  it  to  be  promulgated,  draw- 
ing attention  to  the  penalties  therein  laid  upon  all  who 
reject  it.  "  These  eight  provincial  councils,"  says  Dom 
Gu^ranger,1  "  include  almost  all  France  ;  and  the  other 
1  histitntions  litur%iques,  i.  pp.  448-449. 


170  The  Roman  Breviary 

provinces,  without  assembling  in  a  council,  adopted 
similar  measures.  Lyons  preserved  the  essential 
characteristics  of  her  own  office,  a  mixture  of  Roman 
and  Gallican ;  Besangon  kept  the  diocesan  title  at  the 
head  of  her  service-books,  which  contained  many 
special  customs ;  Sens  merely  reformed  her  ancient 
books  by  aid  of  those  of  St.  Pius  V. ;  Meaux  and 
Chartres  did  the  same ;  Vienne  retained  her  ancient 
Breviary,  without  bringing  out  even  a  reformed 
edition. " 

In  Paris,  from  1583  the  Chapel  Royal  adopted  the 
Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V.  King  Henry  III.,  at  the 
request  of  the  Jesuits,  granted  leave  to  the  Parisian 
printers  to  print  the  Breviary  Romano- Planum,  which 
the  parliament  had  forbidden  up  to  that  time.  The 
bishop,  Pierre  de  Gondy,  seized  this  as  an  opportunity 
for  declaring  his  intention  to  introduce  the  Roman 
Breviary  throughout  his  diocese ;  the  metropolitan 
chapter  and  the  Sorbonne  protested ;  Gondy  relin- 
quished his  project,  but  the  commission  appointed  by 
his  predecessor  for  the  correction  of  the  ancient 
Parisian  Breviary  in  accordance  with  that  of  St. 
Pius  V.  executed  its  task  so  successfully  that  the 
Roman  Breviary  of  1568  was  almost  entirely  inserted 
into  that  of  Paris. 

"  Thus  liturgical  uniformity  was  re-established  in 
France  ;  the  manner  in  which  it  was  brought  to  pass 
was  so  striking  that  there  is  no  other  instance  of  a 
papal  constitution  being  regarded  as  of  obligation  in 


The  Breviary  of  St.  Pius    V.  171 

so  large  a  number  of  councils.  We  see,  too,  that 
these  councils  even  went  beyond  the  limits  of  obedi- 
ence laid  down  by  the  Holy  See  itself.  More  than  a 
third  of  our  churches  used  a  Breviary  which  was 
originally  Roman,  but  had  been  for  more  than  two 
centuries  corrected  and  reformed  by  the  diocesan 
authority.  The  bishops  for  the  most  part  made  no 
difficulty  about  adopting  the  new  Breviary  pure  and 
simple  ;  some  made  no  objection  to  its  being  printed 
almost  altogether  at  the  cost  of  the  diocese.  We  know 
of  scarcely  another  instance,  besides  Lyons,  through- 
out the  whole  of  France,  where  the  ancient  Breviary 
was  retained,  and  even  there  some  improvements 
were  adopted  from  the  new  Roman  book." 

England,  Germany,  and  other  Countries  : — England 
had  already  separated  from  the  communion  of  Rome 
when  the  reformed  Breviary  of  Pius  V.  was  published  ; 
up  to  that  time  she  had  preserved  her  own  liturgical 
formularies,  derived  from  the  three  (or  five)  principal 
uses  of  Salisbury,  York,  Hereford,  Bangor,  and 
Lincoln.  The  Catholic  priests  and  bishops  who 
laboured  on  the  English  mission  had  been  educated 
on  the  continent,  where  they  had  followed  the 
Breviarium  Pianum. 

In  Germany,  Mainz,  Constance,  Miinster,  Prague, 
Spires,  Trier,  Worms,  Wiirzburg  still  kept  to  their 
ancient  Breviaries,  but  before  long  most  of  them 
adopted  the  Roman  Breviary  as  it  stood.  The  same 
thing   happened   in  the  dioceses    of  Osnabruck  and 


172  The  Roman  Breviary 

Minden,  and  in  several  of  the  dioceses  of  Hungary. 
Cologne  corrected  her  own  Breviary  on  the  model  of 
the  new  Roman  book,  and  Trier  and  Mtinster  followed 
suit. 

With  regard  to  these  adhesions  as  a  whole,  they 
can  easily  be  divided  into  two  classes :  some  churches 
availed  themselves  of  the  liberty  given  them,  and 
brought  their  own  Breviaries  into  closer  conformity 
to  the  Roman  by  effecting  certain  alterations  ;  others 
simply  adopted  the  Roman  Breviary  as  it  stood. 
Yet  the  second  class  of  churches  gradually  felt  the 
need  of  preserving  certain  diocesan  customs,  or  of 
obtaining  special  offices  for  local  Saints  or  specially 
venerated  patrons.  Accordingly,  Rome  soon  began 
to  receive  from  all  the  European  countries,  and  from 
others  still  more  distant,  requests  either  for  per- 
mission to  have  an  office  for  some  particular  festival, 
or  for  the  approbation  of  a  proper  of  Saints  belong- 
ing to  the  diocese,  by  way  of  supplement  to  the 
Breviarium  Planum.  Whenever  these  offices  could 
plead  the  consecration  of  antiquity,  and  did  not 
deviate  from  the  Roman  office  to  any  great  extent 
in  their  external  form,  or  in  the  style  and  character 
of  their  legends,  antiphons,  hymns,  responds,  and 
prayers,  approbation  was  readily  accorded.  The 
mere  enumeration  of  these  offices  does  not  fall  within 
the  scope  of  a  general  history  of  the  Breviary ;  it  is 
sufficient  to  draw  attention  to  their  existence. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ROMAN  BREVIARY  FROM  ST.  PIUS  V.  TO 
THE  END  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

BEFORE  long,  the  Breviarium  Pianum  underwent 
those  alterations  which  the  pontiff  who  authorised  its 
publication  seemed  to  dread ;  of  these  alterations 
some  were  made  with  the  consent  of  the  popes, 
others  crept  in  under  cover  of  Gallican  or  Jansenist 
influences,  while  there  was  a  third  class  consisting 
of  alterations  desired  by  the  popes  which  never  got 
beyond  the  stage  of  mere  suggestions.  We  shall 
endeavour  briefly  to  give  an  idea  of  all  those  in  this 
chapter. 

Section  i.— Alterations  effected  by  the 
Popes  in  the  Roman  Breviary  at  the  end 
of  the  Sixteenth  and  during  the  Seven- 
teenth Centuries 

i.  Changes  in  some  matters  of  detail  immediately 
after  St.  Pius  V. — Gregory  XIII.  made  the  following 
additions  to  the  calendar:  in  1573,  he  gave  permis- 
sion for  the  celebration  of  a  special  festival   of  the 

173 


174  The  Roman  Breviary 

Holy  Rosary  in  churches  which  had  an  altar  of  the 
Rosary,  in  thanksgiving  for  the  victory  of  Lepanto; 
he  also  extended  the  feast  of  St.  Anne  to  the  universal 
church,  at  the  suggestion  of  Cardinal  Sirleto.  But 
the  most  important  work  of  Gregory  XIII.  was  the 
reform  of  the  Julian  calendar,  which  he  had  himself 
proposed  when  cardinal  at  the  Council  of  Trent ;  by 
his  orders  a  commission  of  experts  was  formed  for 
this  purpose,  the  most  learned  men  in  Italy,  France, 
Germany,  Poland,  and  Spain  were  consulted,  and, 
all  the  information  necessary  for  carrying  out  a 
scientific  reform  having  been  collected,  the  learned 
pope  ordered  the  calendar  known  as  the  Gregorian  to 
be  introduced.  Through  his  efforts  another  work, 
closely  allied  to  the  reform  of  the  calendar  and  the 
recitation  of  the  Breviary,  was  also  achieved,  i.e. 
the  revision  and  correction  of  the  Martyrology  or 
extended  calendar,  containing  notices  of  the  festivals 
of  the  Christian  year,  to  be  read  daily  in  choir  at 
Prime,  at  least  in  monasteries  and  collegiate  churches 
or  cathedrals. 

2.  Under  Sixtus  V.  and  Gregory  XIV.  (1585- 
1591)  the  calendar  received  further  additions,  a  new 
edition  of  the  Vulgate  was  set  on  foot,  and  also  a 
revision  of  the  Breviary  itself,  which  was  soon  after- 
wards concluded  under  Clement  VIII. 

The  new  festivals  added  under  Sixtus  V.  were  those 
of  St.  Francis  of  Paula  (2nd  April),  St.  Nicholas  of 
Tolentino  (10th  September),  St.  Peter  Martyr  (29th 


St.  Pitts  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    175 

April),  St.  Antony  of  Padua  (13th  June),  St.  Januarius 
and  his  companions  (19th  September),  all  doubles; 
St.  Diego  or  Didacus  (13th  November),  without 
specification  as  to  rank ;  we  may  also  add  the 
memorial  of  St.  Placidus  (5th  October),  the  festival  of 
the  Stigmata  of  St  Francis  (17th  September)  extended 
to  the  universal  church  ;  the  title  of  Doctor  conferred 
on  St.  Bonaventure  (14th  July),  and  the  elevation  of 
his  festival  to  the  rank  of  a  double  ;  and,  finally,  the 
re-introduction  of  the  festival  of  the  Presentation  of 
our  Lady  (21st  November). 

Sixtus  V.  desired  that  in  all  parts  of  the  Breviary 
the  text  of  Scripture  should  be  that  of  the  Vulgate, 
which  he  had  just  published.  It  is  well  known  that 
this  important  undertaking  had  been  asked  for  by  the 
Council  of  Trent ;  since  1560  a  commission  had  been 
appointed  for  this  purpose  and  had  at  once  commenced 
its  labours,  but  the  progress  was  slow,  though  pains- 
taking ;  the  length  of  time  occupied  in  the  work  shows 
how  difficult  and  arduous  the  task  was.  Cardinal 
Peretti  (the  future  Sixtus  V.)  suggested  to  Gregory 
XIII.,  who  agreed  to  the  proposal,  that  a  critical 
edition  of  the  Greek  text  of  the  Septuagint  should 
first  be  undertaken.  On  the  conclusion  of  this  work, 
the  commission  (henceforth  called  the  Sixtine  Com- 
mission, having  had  its  powers  confirmed  by  Sixtus  V.) 
resumed  its  labours  on  the  text  of  the  Vulgate, 
with  Cardinal  CarafTa  as  president ;  numerous  MSS. 
were  collated ;  the  text,  as  corrected,  was  presented 


176  The  Roman  Breviary 

in  1589  to  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  who  revised  it,  gave  his 
decision  upon  the  passages  which  still  remained 
uncertain,  altered  some  of  the  readings  decided  upon, 
and  published  his  bull  JEternus  giving  an  account 
of  the  scope  and  history  of  the  new  edition.  In  July 
1590,  it  made  its  appearance  in  three  volumes,  shortly 
after  the  pope's  death,  but  it  was  far  from  perfect,  for 
full  use  had  not  been  made  of  the  labours  of  the 
commission,  and,  on  the  accession  of  Gregory  XIV. 
it  was  necessary  to  resume  once  more  the  work  of 
revision,  using  this  time  the  Sixtine  Bible  as  a  basis. 
Bellarmine  was  called  upon  to  give  his  advice,  but  it 
was  not  until  the  pontificate  of  Clement  VIII.  that  a 
correct  edition  appeared,  thanks  to  the  assistance  of 
the  two  Cardinals  Valerio  and  Frederic  Borromeo  and 
of  the  Jesuit  F.  Toletus.  There  were  still  more  than 
two  hundred  mistakes  made  in  printing,  and  it  was 
only  in  1598  that  a  really  correct  text  was  published, 
and  all  further  revision  put  an  end  to  by  the  church. 
According  to  the  bull  of  Clement  VIII.  (of  the  year 
1592),  printed  at  the  beginning  of  our  copies  of  the 
Vulgate,  all  liturgical  texts,  theological  treatises  and 
discussion  must  employ  this  text  as  the  authorised 
version. 

To  return  to  the  labours  of  Sixtus  V.  in  respect  of 
the  liturgy,  it  has  been  maintained,  according  to 
original  documents  of  that  date,  that  the  revision  of 
the  Breviary,  usually  attributed  to  Clement  VIII., 
was  really  initiated  by  Sixtus  V.     To  him  is  due  the 


St.  Phis  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    177 

creation  of  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  Rites,  1588, 
which  is  entirely  occupied  with  the  oversight  and 
maintenance  of  the  liturgy.  At  once,  upon  its  forma- 
tion, the  pope  charged  its  prefect  Gesualdo  to  collect 
information  from  different  Christian  countries  as  to 
whether  the  service-books  of  St.  Pius  V.,  especially 
the  Breviary,  fulfilled  all  requirements,  or  were  in  need 
of  some  alterations.  Gesualdo  wrote  in  this  sense  to 
the  nuncios  in  the  different  countries,  but  the  exact 
date  of  these  letters  is  not  known. 

The  measure  was  a  wise  one,  for  in  the  twenty 
years  that  the  Breviarium  Planum  had  been  in  use, 
it  was  possible  to  discover  if  further  changes  were 
required,  and  at  the  same  time  due  respect  was 
shown  to  the  legitimate  wishes  of  local  churches, 
in  accordance  with  the  views  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great 
and  St.  Pius  V. 

During  1588  and  1589  answers  were  received  from 
Naples,  Vercelli,  Leon,  etc.,  and  the  nuncios  at  Paris, 
Prague,  Cracow,  Venice,  Turin,  Madrid,  Lisbon  sent 
in  numerous  observations,  for  the  most  part  reason- 
able and  moderate.  These  answers  were  submitted 
under  Clement  VIII.  to  the  commission  of  1592,  of 
which  Cardinal  Baronius  was  the  moving  spirit.  Up 
to  the  present  time  nothing  has  come  to  light  to 
show  what  action  Sixtus  V.  took  upon  receipt  of  these 
letters,  but  perhaps  the  Vatican  archives  will  one  day 
yield  information  on   this  point ;  probably  the  pope, 

who   was   drawing    near  his  end    when   the  answers 

12 


i;8 


The  Roman  Breviary 


arrived,  merely  appointed  a  commission  to  deal  with 
the  preliminary  undertakings. 

Gregory  XIV.  proceeded  with  the  work  thus  com- 
menced, but  his  death  soon  led  to  the  suspension  of 
the  commission's  labours  for  a  few  months ;  the 
report  which  it  drew  up  has  recently  been  published, 
and  increases  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Breviary.  Briefly,  it  was  decided — I.  to  add 
to  the  common  of  saints  seven  or  eight  sets  of  lections 
for  the  second  and  third  nocturns,  in  order  to  provide 
for  the  offices  of  patron  or  titular  saints  who  had  no 
lections  of  their  own  ;  2.  to  proceed  with  the  examina- 
tion of  the  general  rubrics  of  the  Breviary,  so  as  to 
correct  and  explain  them,  and  arrange  them  in  better 
order;  3.  to  go  through  the  proper  of  saints  with  a 
view  to  introduce  some  corrections.  In  consequence 
of  this  last  resolution,  the  lections  of  St.  Andrew  the 
Apostle,  St.  Nicholas,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Melchiades, 
and  St.  Damasus  were  examined  in  the  course  of 
several  sittings.  The  work  was  once  more  resumed 
with  vigour  under  the  pontiff  of  whom  we  have  now 
to  speak. 

3.  The  work  of  Clement  VIII.  (1 592-1605). — 
Cardinal  Ippolito  Aldobrandini,  having  ascended  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  brought  to  a  conclusion  the  work 
initiated  by  Sixtus  V. ;  to  him  we  owe,  amongst  other 
works,  the  authentic  edition  of  the  Vulgate  now  in 
use,  and  a  new  edition  of  the  Breviary.  The  com- 
mission which  he  instituted  with  a  view  to  the  latter 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Cenhiry    179 

undertaking  included,  amongst  many  men  remarkable 
for  learning  and  piety,  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  Silvio 
Antoniano,  Ghisleri,  Gavanti,  etc.  The  report  of  this 
commission  drawn  up  by  Baronius  has  been  published 
in  recent  times.  The  writer,  after  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  criticisms  sent  in  from  various  quarters, 
states  that  his  part  consisted  rather  in  eliminating 
than  in  making  additions,  explains  the  object  of  the 
alterations  he  suggests,  and  declares  himself  prepared 
to  give  still  fuller  explanations  to  the  Sacred  Con- 
gregation of  Rites.  It  had  been  proposed  to  print  a 
small  volume  containing  the  new  offices,  along  with 
the  corrections  to  be  made  in  the  old  offices,  provided 
with  a  well  drawn  up  table  by  which  each  one  could 
correct  his  own  Breviary.  Baronius  accepted  this 
suggestion  as  far  as  it  concerned  the  new  offices  only, 
and  was  of  opinion  that  it  was  better  to  prepare  an 
edition  containing  all  the  approved  improvements 
and  alterations,  leaving  each  one  free  to  buy  the  new 
Breviary  or  not,  but  giving  leave  in  the  future  ex- 
clusively for  the  sale  of  the  corrected  text  He 
thought  that  in  this  way  the  end  in  view  would  be 
quietly  attained  in  a  few  years.  In  favour  of  a 
complete  new  edition  there  may  be  urged — (a)  the 
necessity  of  putting  the  new  offices  in  their  proper 
place,  which  had  not  been  given  them  heretofore ; 
{b)  the  need  of  octaves  for  those  churches  whose 
patron  saints  had  no  proper  office  ;  (c)  the  idea  of 
checking  the  rashness  of  some  who  had  inserted  into 


180  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  Breviary,  on  their  own  private  authority,  false  or 
uncertain  matter,  such  as,  for  example,  the  lections  for 
St.  Alexius. 

The  commission,  having  taken  this  report  of 
Baronius  into  consideration,  decided  in  favour  of  the 
retention  of  vigils  for  several  of  the  chief  festivals  and 
of  the  offices  for  the  dedication  of  the  basilicas  of 
the  Lateran  and  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  on  the  9th 
and  1 8th  November;  rejected  the  idea  of  shortening 
the  newly  added  offices  for  doubles  and  the  Sunday 
office ;  stated  that  the  fewest  changes  possible  were  to 
be  made,  and  that  it  was  sufficient  to  make  some 
changes  in  the  hymns  when  they  were  manifestly 
incorrect ;  added  the  two  hymns  Fortem  virili  pectore 
by  Silvio  Antoniano,  and  Pater  superni  nuniinis  by 
Bellarmine  —  the  former  for  the  newly-composed 
common  of  holy  women,  and  the  latter  for  the  feast  of 
St.  Mary  Magdalen  The  commission  further  decided 
to  make  corrections  in  the  lections  :  first,  Clement 
VIII.'s  edition  of  the  Vulgate  was  adopted  for  the 
lections  of  the  first  nocturn  and  for  the  short  lections ; 
secondly,  certain  sermons  and  homilies  were  sup- 
pressed in  the  second  and  third  nocturns,  and  others 
substituted  in  their  place,  eg.  a  sermon  by  St.  John 
Damascene  on  the  15th  August,  and  another  by  the 
Venerable  Bede  on  the  1st  November;  the  De  Vir- 
ginibus  of  St.  Ambrose  reappeared  on  the  feast  of  St. 
Agnes,  2 1st  November,  the  fourth  lection  being  taken 
from  St.  John  Damascene  ;  thirdly,  certain  statements 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    1 8 1 

historically  unjustifiable  and  certain  expressions  con- 
sidered unsuitable  were  eliminated  from  the  legends 
of  the  Saints. 

There  were  some  corrections  suggested  by  Baronius 
and  Bellarmine  which  met  with  the  approval  of 
neither  the  commission  nor  the  pope,  such,  for 
example,  as  the  alteration  in  the  legend  of  St. 
Alexius,  and  the  elimination  of  the  pretended  identity 
of  the  areopagite  with  St.  Denys  of  Paris.  At  any 
rate,  the  efforts  of  these  two  learned  men  led  to  the 
formulation  of  the  principle,  "  the  Roman  Breviary 
is  a  work  capable  of  being  brought  to  perfection." 
Some  strictly  prohibitive  expressions  of  Pius  V. 
seemed  to  have  emptied  this  formula  of  its  meaning, 
but  these  expressions  are  not  enforced  in  the  bull 
Cunt  in  ecclesia  published  by  Clement  VIII.  on  the 
ioth  May  1602,  which  still  appears  at  the  beginning 
of  the  editions  actually  in  use,  in  company  with 
the  other  bull  Quod  a  nobis.  What  is  expressly 
forbidden  is  the  printing  of  the  Roman  Breviary 
without  the  permission  of  the  ordinary,  and  all 
additions  or  omissions  deviating  from  the  Vatican 
edition. 

The  work  of  Clement  VIII.  included  the  general 
rubrics  of  the  Breviary,  several  of  which  were 
modified,  corrected,  or  expressed  in  a  more  simple 
form.  As  we  have  just  seen,  a  common  for  holy 
women  was  added  to  the  commons  for  other  Saints. 
The  increased  rank  given  to  festivals  which  Pius  V. 


1 82  The  Roman  Breviary 

had  reduced  to  a  lower  grade,  and  the  creation  of 
new  offices,  led  to  the  introduction  of  a  distinction 
among  doubles. 

Pius  V.  had  admitted  only  three  kinds  of  doubles — 
doubles  of  the  first  class,  doubles  of  the  second  class 
and  simple  doubles  per  annum,  but  Clement  VIII. 
introduced  a  fourth  kind — greater  doubles — between 
those  of  the  second  and  third  class,  and  gave  this 
rank  to  the  festivals  of  the  Transfiguration,  the 
Exaltation  of  the  Holy  Cross,  the  Visitation,  our 
Lady  of  the  Snows,  the  Presentation  and  Conception 
of  our  Blessed  Lady,  the  Apparition  of  St.  Michael, 
the  two  feasts  of  St.  Peter's  Chair,  St.  Peter's  Chains, 
the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  St.  John  before  the  Latin 
Gate,  and  St.  Barnabas.  A  number  of  feasts  were 
raised  and  others  lowered  one  degree,  and  several 
new  offices  were  extended  to  the  universal  church, 
two  of  which  (St.  Romuald,  7th  February,  and  St. 
Stanislas,  7th  May)  were  semi-doubles.  The  festival 
of  the  Stigmata  of  St.  Francis  created  by  Sixtus 
V.  was  suppressed.  In  fact,  a  fresh  impulse  was 
given  to  the  preponderance  of  the  sanctorale  over 
the  temporale,  which  was  followed  by  the  successors 
of  Clement  VIII.  with  a  few  exceptions,  such  as 
Benedict  XIV. 

Thus  before  we  reach  Urban  VIII.,  we  have  already 
Paul  V.,  who  restored  the  festival  of  St.  Francis' 
Stigmata  as  a  semi-double  ad  libitum,  raised  St 
Francis  of  Paula  to  the  rank  of  double  from  having 


St.  Pitts  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    183 

been  a  semi-double  under  Clement  VIII.,  added  the 
feasts  of  St.  Casimir,  St.  Norbert,  and  St.  Charles 
Borromeo ;  and  Gregory  XV.,  who  canonized  the 
saints  of  the  sixteenth  century — St.  Ignatius  Loyola, 
St.  Francis  Xavier,  St.  Philip  Neri,  St.  Isidore  the 
husbandman,  St.  Teresa,  St.  Aloysius — and  added 
their  offices  to  the  proper  of  saints,  except  that 
of  St.  Isidore,  which  was  only  admitted  pro  aliquibus 
locis. 

4.  Changes  made  by  Urban  VIII.  (162 3- 1644). — 
The  poet  and  patron  of  the  arts,  who  before  his 
elevation  to  the  Holy  See  was  known  as  Maffeo 
Barberini,  had  also  a  mind  to  try  his  hand  at  the 
revision  of  the  Breviary.  The  commission  which  he 
appointed  for  this  purpose  comprised  Cardinal  Luigi 
Cajetan  as  President,  and,  amongst  its  members,  the 
Jesuit  Alciati,  who  prepared  a  history  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,published  after  his  death  by  Cardinal  Pallavicini; 
the  celebrated  annalist  of  the  Friars  Minor,  Luke 
Wadding  ;  the  most  learned  liturgist  of  the  period,  the 
Barnabite  Gavanti,  etc.  The  corrections  effected 
with  the  approval  of  Urban  VIII.  were  not  of  much 
importance.  The  commission  was  of  opinion  that 
after  all  that  had  been  done  by  Bellarmine  and 
Baronius  under  Clement  VIII.,  nothing  remained  for 
it  to  do  with  regard  to  bringing  the  legends  into 
closer  agreement  with  historical  exactitude,  and  so  it 
maintained  the  facts  or  details  called  in  question,  but 
modified    some  expressions  in  fourteen  or  fifteen  of 


184  The  Roma7i  Breviary 

these  legends ;  next,  it  examined  once  more  the 
sermons  and  homilies  taken  from  the  Fathers,  com- 
pared them  with  the  best  editions  of  the  period,  and 
made  such  alterations  and  additions  as  it  judged 
necessary.  Urban  VIII.  desired  that  for  the  psalms 
and  canticles,  as  well  as  for  all  other  passages  taken 
from  Holy  Scripture,  the  punctuation  of  the  edition 
of  Clement  VIII.  should  be  strictly  followed,  but 
permitted  that,  in  order  to  mark  the  pause,  an  asterisk 
should  be  employed  to  divide  each  verse  of  the  psalms 
into  two  parts. 

A  more  important  correction  was  carried  out  inde- 
pendently of  the  commission,  i.e.  the  correction  of  the 
hymns.  Is  this  to  be  regarded  as  chiefly  the  work 
of  the  Jesuit  Fathers  Sarbiewski,  Strada,  Galluzzi,  and 
Petrucci,  to  whom  the  pontiff  appealed  to  undertake 
it?  Or  are  we  to  give  the  honour  of  it  to  Urban 
himself,  who  was  quite  capable  of  carrying  through 
this  difficult  enterprise,  to  judge  from  the  hymns  for 
St.  Martina  and  St.  Elizabeth  of  Portugal  which  he 
composed  and  placed  in  the  Breviary?  These  are 
delicate  questions,  which  need  not  be  gone  into  here. 
The  result  has  always  given  rise  to  very  different 
judgements,  and  for  the  most  part  unfavourable.  It 
seemed  to  be  exceedingly  rash  to  regard  as  barbarous 
the  hymns  of  men  like  Prudentius,  Sedulius,  Sidonius 
Apollinaris,  Venantius  Fortunatus,  St.  Ambrose,  St. 
Paulinus  of  Aquileia,  and  Rhabanus  Maurus,  and  to 
desire  to  remodel  them  after  the  pattern  of  Horace's 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    185 

Odes.  It  is  difficult  to  suppress  a  feeling  of  astonish- 
ment when  one  hears  these  reformers  call  the  Te 
Dettvi  and  the  Ave  maris  stella  "hymns  in  prose," 
and  the  hymns  of  St  Thomas  Aquinas  (Pange  lingua, 
Sacris  solemniis,  Verbum  supermini),  composed  in  an 
Etruscan  metre,  Etrusco  rhythmo  compositi.  We  may 
also  add  that  the  work  of  revising  the  hymns  was 
rendered  all  the  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that  Urban 
VIII.  required  that  the  measure  and  sense  of  each 
line  should  be  preserved,  that  the  expressions  used 
should  not  be  fundamentally  altered,  and  that  the 
well-known  music  of  the  hymns  should  not  be  changed 
either.  As  a  critic  of  the  last  century  remarks,1  it  is 
useful  to  remember  that  the  Jesuits  chosen  by  Urban 
VIII.  as  being  best  suited  and  prepared  for  this 
difficult  task,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
occupied  in  teaching,  were  on  that  account  necessarily 
under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  and  taste  of  the 
period  ;  and  also  not  being  bound  to  the  recitation 
of  the  Breviary  in  choir,  were  the  less  able  to  judge 
of  compositions  which  depended  more  upon  their 
suitability  for  singing  than  on  their  literary  form. 
It  is  only  fair  to  give  them  the  credit  that  out  of 
respect  for  the  wishes  of  Urban  VIII.  they  treated 
these  ancient  compositions  with  extreme  reserve, 
and,  while  they  made  some  expressions  clearer,  they 
maintained  the  primitive  unction  in  a  large  number 
of  passages. 

1  Pimont,  Les  Hymnes  du  Breviaire  romain,  preface. 


1 86  The  Roman  Breviary 

In  952  places  they  corrected  what  were  faults  in 
their  eyes  (58  in  the  psalter  per  hebdomadam,  359  in 
the  proper  de  Tempore,  283  in  the  proper  of  Saints,  and 
252  in  the  common  of  Saints).  Two  hymns  were 
entirely  recast :  Tibi  Christe  splendor  Patris  for  St. 
Michael's  day,  and  Coelestis  urbs  for  the  dedication 
of  a  church.  On  the  17th  March  1629,  the  Sacred 
Congregation  of  Rites  approved  of  the  proposed 
changes,  all  priests  and  clerics  were  authorised  to 
recite  these  hymns  in  the  office  for  the  future,  and, 
by  the  bull  Divinam  psalmodiam  inserted  after  the 
bulls  of  Pius  V.  and  Clement  VIII. ,  Urban  introduced 
these  alterations  into  the  official  edition  of  the 
Breviary  in  1632. 

To  avoid  all  cause  for  scandal  which  might  arise 
from  the  estimates  which  writers  have  formed  of  the 
work  of  Urban  VIII.,  it  is  well  to  state  that  it  has 
always  been  looked  upon  as  a  disciplinary  act. 
Neither  in  the  intention  of  the  church  nor  of  Urban 
VIII.  was  this  revision  to  be  regarded  as  aimed  against 
the  retention  of  the  ancient  hymns.  Since  Urban 
VIII.,  the  Holy  See  has  done  very  little  towards 
imposing  the  usage  of  the  corrected  hymns.  "  It  was 
impossible,"  says  Dom  Gueranger,1  "to  establish 
their  use  in  St.  Peter's,  but  they  spread  rapidly 
through  the  other  churches  of  Rome,  Italy,  and 
Christendom,  with  the  exception  of  France.  Few 
French  editions  of  the  Breviary  before  1789  are 
1  Institutions  liturgiques,  i.  p.  517. 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    187 

found  with  the  new  hymns;  most  frequently  they 
come  at  the  end,  in  a  sort  of  appendix.  ...  As  far 
as  regards  the  religious  orders,,  those  bound  to  the 
use  of  the  Roman  Breviary  adopted  the  new  hymns, 
except  the  Franciscans  of  the  French  provinces. 
The  religious  orders  and  congregations  kept  to  the 
old;  the  congregation  of  St.  Maur  is  the  only  one 
which,  after  many  variations,  adopted  the  revision  of 
Urban  VIII.  At  the  present  day  in  Rome  itself 
the  Benedictines  of  Monte  Cassino,  the  Cistercians, 
the  Carthusians,  etc.,  sing  the  ancient  hymns,  which 
keep  their  place  in  the  Dominican  Breviary  also." 

We  conclude  our  criticism  of  this  undertaking 
with  the  words  of  M.  Ulysse  Chevalier  : l  "  the  Jesuits 
have  spoiled  the  work  of  Christian  antiquity,  under 
pretext  of  restoring  the  hymns  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  metre  and  elegant  language"  ; — writh  the  best 
canonists,  who  say  that  while  respecting  the 
obligation  of  reciting  the  Breviary  hymns,  one  may, 
with  the  consent  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  entertain 
the  prospect  of  a  return  to  the  ancient  forms  (a 
change  which  would  make  the  use  of  the  Gregorian 
melodies  easy) ; — with  M.  Pimont,2  who  says  "  that 
Christian  sentiment  and  true  piety  have  lost  by  the 
change,  without  any  advantage  to  poetry."  Some 
examples  will  enable  the  reader  to  form  his  own 
judgement. 

1  U.  Chevalier,  Uitiversite  catholique,  viii.,  1891,  p.  122  etseqq. 
1  Pimont,  op.  cit.,  preface. 


88  The  Roman  Breviary 

The  hymn  for  Vespers  in  Advent : — 

The  Ancient   Version. 

Qui  condolens  interitu 
Mortis  perire  saeculum 
Salvasti  mundum  languidum, 
Donans  reis  remedium. 

Cujus  fasti  potentiae 
Genu  curvantur  omnia 
Coelestia,  terrestria 
Nutu  fatentur  subdita. 

Corrections  of  Urban   VIII. 

Qui  daemonis  ne  fraudibus 
Periret  orbis,  impetu 
Amoris  actus,  languidi 
Mundi  medela  factus  es. 

Cujus  potestas  gloriae 
Nomenque  cum  primum  sonat 
Et  coelites  et  inferi 
Tremente  curvantur  genu. 

The  hymn  at  Lauds  during  Paschal  time : 

The  Ancient   Version, 

Ille  qui  clausus  lapide 
Custoditur  sub  milite 
Triumphans  pompa  nobili 
Victor  surgit  de  funere. 

Solutis  jam  gemitibus 
Et  infemi  doloribus, 
Quia  surrexit  Dominus 
Resplendens  clamat  Angelus. 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    189 

Corrections  of  Urba?i    VIII. 

Cujus  sepulchrum  plurimo 
Custode  signabat  lapis, 
Victor  triumphat  et  suo 
Mortem  sepulcro  funerat. 

Sat  funeri,  sat  lacrimis, 
Sat  est  datum  doloribus  : 
Surrexit  extinctor  necis, 
Clamat  coruscans  Angelus. 

Those  who  wish  to  follow  out  the  comparison  of 
the  two  versions  may  consult  Daniel,  Thesaurus 
hymnologicus  (Halle,  1841). 

Urban  VIII.  manifested  special  zeal  in  instituting 
new  offices  and  new  festivals  of  saints ;  e.g.  the  office 
of  St.  Elizabeth  of  Portugal  (8th  July)  is  entirely  his. 
Then  he  created,  as  a  double,  St.  Hyacinth  (16th 
August);  as  semi-doubles,  the  feasts  of  St.  Bibiana 
(2nd  December),  St.  Martina,  St.  Hermengild  (13th 
April),  St.  Catharine  of  Siena  (30th  April),  St.  Eustace 
and  his  companions  (20th  September) ;  as  semi- 
doubles  ad  libitum,  St.  Teresa  (15th  October),  St. 
Elizabeth  of  Portugal;  St  Henry  (15th  July)  and 
St.  Stephen  of  Hungary  (2nd  September)  were  given 
a  commemoration. 

5.  The  successors  of  Urban  VIII.  to  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century. — The  Roman  Breviary  of 
Urban  VIII.  has  continued  to  the  present  day  with- 
out any  considerable  alteration — we  have  only  to  note 
how  it  has  been  enriched  under  his  successors.     The 


190  The  Roman  Breviary 

aim  of  Innocent  X.  seems  to  have  been  to  guarantee 
the  regular  recitation  of  the  Sunday  office,  and  to 
bring  the  ferial  office  into  more  frequent  use,  in  order 
that  the  entire  psalter  should  be  recited  several  times 
in  the  course  of  the  year.  With  the  exception  of  the 
festival  of  St.  Frances  of  Rome  (9th  March),  which 
he  made  a  double,  the  festivals  extended  by  him  to 
the  universal  church  are  semi-doubles,  e.g.  St.  Ignatius 
Loyola,  St.  Teresa  and  St.  Charles  Borromeo.  The 
festival  of  St.  Clare  became  a  double  ad  libitum. 

Alexander  VII.  established  the  festival  of  St. 
Francis  of  Sales  and  composed  the  collect  for  it 
himself;  raised  the  festival  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo 
to  the  rank  of  a  double,  and  that  of  St.  Philip  Neri 
to  the  rank  of  a  semi-double  de  precepto ;  inserted  in 
the  calendar  St.  Peter  Nolasco,  St.  Bernardine  of 
Siena,  and  St.  Francis  Xavier,  all  of  the  same  rank 
as  the  preceding  ;  and,  as  semi-doubles  ad  libitum,  St. 
Andrew  Corsini  and  St.  Thomas  of  Villanova. 

Under  Clement  IX.  and  Clement  X.,  the  feasts  of 
St.  Philip  Neri,  St.  Nicholas  of  Tolentino,  and  St. 
Teresa  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  doubles  ;  the  feasts 
of  St.  Monica,  St.  Peter  Celestine,  and  several  others, 
formerly  semi-doubles  ad  libitum,  were  made  semi- 
doubles  de  precepto,  and  the  new  feasts  of  St.  Vincent 
Ferrer,  St.  Raymond  Nonnatus,  and  St.  Remigius 
(semi-doubles  ad  libitum)  made  their  appearance  at 
this  time.  Clement  X.  also  added  new  Saints  to  the 
Breviary ;    he   raised  the  feast  of  St.  Joseph  to  the 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    191 

rank  of  a  double  of  the  second  class,  made  that  of 
St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary  a  double,  and  also  the 
feasts  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  St.  Nicholas  of  Myra, 
St.  Peter  Nolasco,  St.  Peter  Martyr,  St.  Catharine  of 
Siena,  St.  Norbert,  St.  Antony  of  Padua,  St.  Clare, 
St.  Cecilia,  St.  Eustace  and  his  companions,  St.  Bruno, 
and  made  the  office  of  the  Guardian  Angels  obligatory 
upon  the  whole  church.  He  introduced  some  semi- 
doubles  which  he  also  made  of  obligation  for  the 
whole  church,  such  as  St.  Raymond  of  Penaforte,  St. 
Venantius  of  Camerino,  St.  Mary  Magdalen  dei  Pazzi, 
St.  Cajetan  of  Theate,  St.  Peter  of  Alcantara,  St. 
Didacus  or  Diego,  and  finally,  as  semi-doubles  ad 
libitum,  St.  Canute  and  St.  Wenceslas.  The  festivals 
thus  gradually  got  the  upper  hand,  and  the  Sunday 
office,  except  in  Advent  and  Lent,  often  gave  way  to 
them,  while  the  week  became  so  full  of  transferred  feasts 
that  the  recitation  of  the  psalter  became  impossible 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time.  Innocent  XI.  in- 
stituted the  festival  of  the  Name  of  Mary,  and  raised 
some  festivals  to  the  rank  of  doubles  or  semi-doubles  ; 
so  also  did  Alexander  VII.  and  Innocent  XII. 

Section  II. — Liturgical  Developments  outside 
Rome,  and  especially  in  France 

While  each  pope  in  turn  added  some  new  saints  to 
the  calendar,  and  preparations  were  being  made  for  a 
fresh  reform  of  the  Breviary  by  papal  authority  in 
the  more  or  less  distant  future,  an  independent  atti- 


192  The  Roman  Breviary 

tude  was  adopted  in  France,  the  consequences  of 
which  made  themselves  felt  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  may  be  interesting  to  briefly 
describe  this  attitude  in  a  history  of  the  Roman 
Breviary ;  for,  as  M.  Batiffol  says,  it  shows  us  "  in 
what  respects  the  work  of  St.  Pius  V.,  Clement  VIII., 
and  Urban  VIII.  was  incomplete,  and  at  the  same 
time  in  what  respects  it  was  excellent,"  l  and  at  the 
same  time  it  explains  the  abortive  attempt  at  reform 
under  Benedict  XIV. 

1.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  degree  of  freedom 
granted  by  St.  Pius  V.  as  to  the  mode  of  adopting 
the  new  Breviary  had  been  productive  of  good 
results  in  France,  and,  until  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV., 
the  Roman  was  regarded  as  the  model  for  all 
Breviaries.  Our  readers  will  remember  how  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  had  the  ancient  Parisian  Breviary 
revised  and  corrected  {vide  p.  170).  About  1650, 
owing  to  the  zeal  of  the  archbishops  who  succeeded 
Pierre  de  Gondy,  the  Roman  Breviary  and  the 
Parisian  were  regarded  as  identical ;  the  Parisian 
Breviary  was  forbidden  in  choir,  but  everyone  was 
free  to  recite  it  in  private.  While  the  Sulpicians 
used  the  Roman  Breviary,  St.  Vincent  de  Paul 
advised  that  it  was  better  to  follow  the  diocesan  use. 
But  when  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  was  well  advanced, 
two  tendencies,  fatal   to   religion   and    made   up   of 

1  Batiffol,  History  of  the  Roman  Breviary^  p.  289  (Eng. 
trans.). 


St,  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    193 

many  different  shades  of  opinion — Gallicanism  and 
Jansenism — began  to  manifest  themselves.  The  pre- 
ponderance given  to  the  secular  power  in  matters 
religious  was  the  cause  of  Gallicanism,  which  in  its 
turn  found  it  advantageous  to  render  the  church  of 
France  entirely  independent  of  Rome.  In  this  it 
found  a  powerful  ally  in  Jansenism,  with  its  claim 
to  follow  pure  and  original  theories,  its  spirit  of 
excessive  criticism,  and  its  intolerance  of  advice. 
In  spite  of  the  lack  of  common  objects,  these  two 
tendencies  nevertheless  found  means  for  drawing 
together  in  their  common  antipathy  to  Rome  and 
the  liturgical  tradition.1  It  must  be  granted  that 
Gallicanism  and  Jansenism  knew  how  to  use  with 
advantage  the  progress  that  had  been  made  in  sacred 
criticism  by  such  men  as  Baronius  and  Bellarmine, 
and  later,  by  Thomassin  and  Mabillon. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  people  began  to  speak  of  liturgical  reform  in 
those  dioceses  which  had  service-books  of  their  own  : 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  general  character  of  these 
diocesan  Breviaries  was  far  from  harmonizing  with 
recent  historical  and  literary  discoveries.  In  1678,  the 
Archbishop  of  Vienne,  Henri  de  Villars,  opened  the 
way  for  the  innovators  by  having  the  legends  altered, 
and  by  replacing  the  ancient  Gregorian  responds  with 

1  The  history  of  the  Gallican  reformations  of  the  Roman 
Breviary  will  be  found  at  length  in  the  second  vol.  of  Dom 
Gueranger's  Institutions  litiirgiques* 

13 


194  The  Roman  Breviary 

new  ones  entirely  taken  from  Holy  Scripture.  In 
1680,  under  the  auspices  of  Francois  de  Harlay,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  the  new  Parisian  Breviary  appeared, 
celebrated  for  other  reasons  than  the  Breviary  of 
Vienne,  for  in  it  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  cut 
out  *  whatever  was  superfluous  or  not  in  keeping 
with  the  dignity  of  the  church,  and  to  banish 
whatever  had  been  introduced  of  a  superstitious 
character,  in  order  that  only  what  was  in  harmony 
with  the  dignity  of  the  church  and  the  institutions  of 
antiquity  should  remain  therein." 

The  salient  points  of  a  reform  of  this  nature  easily 
arouse  our  suspicion  when  we  consider  the  good 
understanding  existing  between  the  reformers  and 
the  Jansenist  school  upon  the  three  following  points : 
— the  restriction  of  the  cultus  of  the  saints,  the 
diminution  in  particular  of  all  outward  signs  of  de- 
votion towards  our  Blessed  Lady,  and  the  restrictions 
put  to  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  the  Roman  pontiff. 

2.  But  this  was  only  the  beginning  ;  much  might 
be  said  on  the  Breviary  of  Cluny,  upon  which  Claude 
de  Vert  bestowed  so  much  labour  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Cardinal  de  Bouillon  and  for  which  Santeuil 
composed  hymns,  but  we  hasten  on  to  the  edition  of 
the  Parisian  Breviary  of  1736,  generally  known  as 
de  Vintimille's  Breviary.  The  Jansenists  carried 
their  audacity  to  the  length  of  preparing  an  entirely 
national  liturgy,  in  which  they  flattered  the  bad 
literary  taste  of  the  period,  exaggerated  what  historical 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    195 

criticism  had  been  able  to  allege  against  the  ancient 
service-books,  and  dwelt  upon  the  advantages  of 
having  a  shorter  office  to  recite.  These  ideas  found 
realization  in  the  Breviary  of  Orleans,  published  by 
Cardinal  Coislin  in  1693  and  composed  by  a  pupil  of 
Port-Royal,  J.  B.  Lebrun  Desmarettes.  The  bishop 
professes  that  in  his  reformed  Breviary  "  he  has 
chosen  whatever  is  most  suitable  to  praise  and 
propitiate  God,  as  well  as  to  instruct  clerics  in  their 
duties.  .  .  .  We  have  decided/'  he  adds,  "to  admit 
nothing  into  the  antiphons,  versicles,  and  responds 
except  what  is  taken  from  Holy  Scripture."  Soon 
afterwards,  in  1720,  a  work  appeared  entitled  Projet 
dun  nouveau  Brtviaire,  according  to  which  the  divine 
office,  while  preserving  its  usual  form,  was  to  be 
composed  of  Holy  Scripture,  instructive,  and  very 
short;  a  number  of  observations  on  the  old  and  new 
Breviaries  were  also  included  in  the  book. 

The  author  was  Frederic  Foinard,  formerly  cure  of 
Calais,  and  before  long  he  added  example  to  precept 
by  publishing  a  Breviary  drawn  up  according  to  his 
own  plan  (1726).  The  following  year  the  doctor 
Gran  colas,  in  his  Commentaire  du  Breviaire  romain, 
devoted  an  entire  chapter  to  the  project  for  bringing 
out  a  new  Breviary.  The  object  of  these  men  and 
their  imitators,  at  least  to  judge  from  what  they  said, 
was  to  present  a  liturgy  to  a  church  not  possessing 
one,  and,  strange  to  say,  the  French  bishops  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  their  desire  to  bring  about  this 


196  The  Roman  Breviary 

great  revolution,  submitted  to  the  direction  of  mere 
priests  who  had  assumed  to  themselves  the  office  of 
legislating  in  liturgical  matters.  And  what  was  this 
liturgy  to  be  ?  Foinard  undertakes  to  tell  us.  The 
following  proportion  must  be  maintained  among  the 
Christian  festivals  : — There  must  be  one  principal  class 
for  festivals  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  into  which  no  other 
festival  whatsoever,  neither  of  our  Blessed  Lady  nor  of 
any  other  saint,  was  to  intrude;  the  sanctity  of  Sunday 
is  so  great  that  its  office  can  only  give  way  to  a 
solemnity  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  being  privileged  even 
to  take  precedence  of  the  Assumption  and  All  Saints  ; 
in  Lent,  all  festivals  were  to  be  cut  out,  even  the 
Annunciation  (Grancolas  was  more  tolerant  and 
admitted  the  Annunciation  and  even  St.  Joseph).  A 
new  set  of  feasts  of  the  martyrs  was  to  be  introduced, 
arranged  according  to  the  different  persecutions, 
while  many  feasts  were  to  be  lowered  one  or  two 
degrees  in  rank,  and  others  were  merely  to  be 
commemorated,  and  that  only  in  special  places ; 
all  feasts  of  the  finding  and  translation  of  relics  were 
to  be  suppressed.  By  this  means  the  ferial  office 
effectually  gained  the  preponderance  over  the  festal. 
Then,  to  avoid  weariness,  the  office  was  to  be  the 
same  length  on  festivals  and  ferias,  the  number  of 
feasts  with  nine  lections  being  diminished  as  far  as 
possible.  The  "  social "  character  of  the  Breviary  was 
to  vanish  by  cutting  out  the  Dominus  vobisatm,  the 
repetition  of  the  invitatory,  the  short  responds,  the 


St.  Pizcs  V.  to  End  of  'Eighteenth  Century    197 

Jube  dom?ie  benedicere,  Tu  autem  Domine  miserere  nobis 
and  Benedicamus  Domino ;  it  almost  seemed  as  if 
everything  in  the  plural  was  to  disappear.  Before 
all  things,  the  Breviary  must  be  very  short ;  Foinard 
went  as  far  as  to  propose  the  establishment  of  feasts 
with  six  lections.  He  professed  to  find  precedent  for 
this  revolution  in  what  St.  Gregory  the  Great  in  the 
sixth  century  wrote  to  St.  Augustine,  the  Apostle  of 
England,  when  he  left  him  "  free  in  divine  service  to 
admit  customs  either  from  Gaul  or  from  any  other 
churches,  if  their  addition  to  those  of  the  Roman 
church  could  assist  and  strengthen  the  conversion  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons." 

The  first  result  of  these  unpractical  attempts  was 
to  lower  the  liturgy,  hitherto  regarded  as  a  monument 
of  tradition,  to  the  level  of  a  merely  human  document 
which  everyone  was  free  to  criticise  and  alter  accord- 
ing to  his  taste.  Having  neither  diocese  nor  parish. 
Foinard  composed  a  Breviary  according  to  these 
ideas  and  entitled  it  Breviarium  ecclesiasticum  (1726) ; 
whereupon  a  number  of  dioceses  of  France  took  up 
the  work  of  creating  new  liturgies,  such  as  Sens, 
Rouen,  Orleans,  Paris,  where  the  Breviary  of  Cardinal 
de  Noailles  prepared  the  way  for  the  book  soon  after- 
wards authorized  by  Archbishop  de  Vintimille,  etc. 

This  latter  prelate,  in  order  to  bestow  a  new  set  of 
service-books  upon  his  church,  turned  for  assistance 
to  Father  Vigier,  an  Oratorian,  who  was  assisted  in 
his  turn   by  the  acolyte    Mesenguy  and    by  Charles 


198  The  Roman  Breviary 

Coffin,  a  mere  layman,  principal  of  the  College  of 
Beauvais  and  a  thoroughgoing  Jansenist.  It  was  he 
who  undertook  to  compose  the  hymns.  The  new 
Breviary  appeared  in  1735  along  with  a  pastoral 
of  the  bishop  ;  everything,  or  almost  everything,  in 
it  was  new ;  even  the  imprudences  of  de  Harlay's 
Breviary  against  the  cultus  of  the  saints,  and  against 
devotion  to  our  Blessed  Lady  in  particular,  were  sur- 
passed, and,  in  addition,  cautious  attempts  were  made 
to  instil  into  the  Breviary  the  errors  then  current  on 
the  question  of  grace.  The  favourite  principles  of 
Foinard  and  Grancolas  were  put  into  force  j1  Sunday 
took  precedence  of  all  kinds  of  feasts  except  those 
of  the  very  highest  rank  ;  so,  too,  did  Lent,  the  solemn 
gladness  of  festivals  not  being  in  harmony  with  fast- 
ing and  the  wholesome  sadness  of  penitence ;  the 
psalms  for  the  feria  were  recited  on  all  feasts  except 
those  of  martyrs  and  our  Blessed  Lady ;  finally,  the 
most  striking  innovation  was  that  the  psalms  were 
divided  in  such  a  way  that  proper  psalms  were 
assigned  to  each  feria  and  even  to  each  canonical 
hour,  such  as  seemed  too  long  being  divided  into 
sections,  and  thus  almost  the  whole  psalter  could  be 
read  through  in  the  course  of  a  week.2     The  calendar 

1  See  BatifTol,  History  of  the  Roma?i  Breviary,  p.  295,  Eng. 
trans. 

2  Perhaps  it  may  be  allowed  to  state  that  this  last  provision 
can  scarcely  be  called  an  innovation,  for  in  the  sixth  century  St. 
Benedict  followed  it  in  his  rule  for  the  distribution  of  the  psalms. 
See  above,  p.  42. 


St.  Puis  V,  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    199 

was  relieved  of  a  number  of  feasts,  such  as  St.  Peter's 
Chair  at  Antioch,  and  of  a  number  of  octaves,  etc., 
while  others  were  reduced  to  mere  commemorations, 
such  as  St.  George,  Pope  St.  Martin,  and  St.  Sylvester. 
"  The  hymnal  was  not  suppressed,  but  was  re-written 
and  developed.  Most  of  this  work  was  done  by 
Santeuil  and  Coffin,  in  a  style  which  surpassed  even 
the  literary  prettiness  of  the  Jesuits  of  Urban  VIII., 
and  with  a  flavour  about  their  poetic  inspiration 
which  suggested  reminiscences  of  the  Augustinus" 
The  legends  of  the  saints  bore  the  mark  of  the 
new  criticism,  the  other  lections  and  responds  were 
taken  entirely  from  Holy  Scripture.  As  a  final 
characteristic,  showing  how  the  authors  desired 
to  lower  the  apostolic  authority  of  the  Holy  See, 
we  may  give  the  invitatory  for  the  solitary  feast 
of  St.  Peter's  Chair :  "  Caput  corporis  Ecclesiae 
Dominum,  venite,  adoremus,"  instead  of  "  Tu  es 
Pastor  ovium." 

More  than  fifty  dioceses  of  France  adopted  the 
Breviary  of  M.  de  Vintimille  with  certain  modifi- 
cations; nevertheless  there  were  protests  from  among 
the  clergy,  but  in  other  districts  new  ideas  quite 
as  alien  to  the  Roman  Breviary  were  extensively 
followed.  At  Rouen,  for  instance,  Dr.  Urban 
Robinet,  in  his  desire  to  check  the  spread  of  the 
Breviary  of  Vigier  and  Mesenguy,  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  public  his  ideas  on  liturgical  matters. 
"  With  regard  to  the  general   principles/5  says  Dom 


200  The  Roman  Breviary 

Gueranger,  "  we  find  just  the  same  teaching  and  just 
the  same  fever  for  recasting  the  church's  language 
according  to  the  taste  of  one  particular  period  and 
the  views  of  a  mere  private  scholar ;  Holy  Scripture 
regarded  as  the  sole  source  for  antiphons,  versicles,  and 
responds;  the  Breviary  shortened.  Still,  when  all  is 
said,  we  are  bound  to  recognize  in  Robinet  one  of 
those  sincere  Catholics  not  unaffected  by  the  prevail- 
ing tone  of  their  time,  who,  while  quite  alive  to  the 
duty  of  following  submissively  the  decisions  of 
the  Holy  See  against  new  errors,  did  not  realize 
to  an  equal  extent  the  evil  of  breaking  with  unity 
and  universality  in  liturgical  matters.,,  In  this  new 
Breviary  the  hymns  were  Robinet's  composition 
(they  owed  their  unction  quite  as  much  as  their 
orthodoxy  to  Coffin) ;  the  arrangement  of  the  psalter 
followed  the  new  Parisian  Breviary  ;  the  antiphons 
and  responds  were  all  taken  from  Holy  Scripture ; 
the  selection  of  lections,  though  showing  remarkable 
knowledge  of  Holy  Scripture  on  the  author's  part,  was 
yet  marked  by  quite  unheard-of  eccentricities ;  no 
attention  is  paid  to  the  canon  of  St.  Gregory  VII. 
determining  the  order  in  which  the  books  of  Scripture 
are  to  be  read.  An  example  will  give  the  reader 
some  idea  of  what  is  meant :  during  the  six  weeks 
after  Epiphany  we  find  Tobias,  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  Job.  We  often  find  passages  from  the 
Bible  chosen  for  the  second  nocturn  on  Sundays  more 
or  less  parallel  to  those  of  the    first   nocturn  ;    the 


St.  Pitts  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    201 

Apostolic  Epistles  are  read  at  the  third  nocturn  ;  the 
homilies  of  the  Fathers  appear  only  in  the  ninth 
lection :  finally,  lesser  doubles  are  reduced  to  six 
lections.  Here  we  see  the  curious  idea  of  Foinard 
put  into  practice.  Irreproachable  as  it  was  in  respect 
of  orthodoxy,  this  Breviary  enjoyed  only  a  moderate 
success,  being  adopted  by  barely  three  or  four 
dioceses. 

3.  All  these  innovations,  so  widespread  during  the 
eighteenth  century  in  France,  gave  rise  to  an  episode 
of  the  greatest  interest  in  liturgical  matters,  i.e.  the 
manner  in  which  the  story  of  St.  Gregory  VII.  was 
treated.  This  great  pontiff,  one  of  the  glories  of  the 
Benedictine  Order,  had  many  admirers,  among  whom 
can  be  ranked  saints  such  as  St.  Peter  Damian  and 
St.  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  historians  such  as  Baronius 
and  Bellarmine,  and  popes  such  as  Benedict  XIV. 
He  was  canonized  in  1584  by  Gregory  XIII.  by 
equipollent  canonization,  as  was  customary  at  that 
period;  Alexander  VII.  ordered  his  office  to  be 
celebrated  in  the  basilicas,  and  placed  him  as  a 
confessor  in  the  Breviaries  of  the  Benedictines  and 
Cistercians  ;  and  lastly,  Benedict  XIII.,  by  a  decree  of 
the  25th  September  1728,  extended  his  office  to  the 
universal  church,  and  provided  him  with  a  proper 
collect  and  new  lections  for  the  second  nocturn.  No 
doubt  Rome  thought  by  these  means  to  rescue  from 
oblivion  one  of  the  heroes  of  humanity,  who  was 
regarded  as  "  the  vindicator  of  civilization,  the  pre- 


202  The  Roman  Breviary 

server  of  liberty,  public  as  well  as  ecclesiastical ; 
perhaps,  at  the  same  time,  Rome  intended  to  protect 
her  honour,  which  had  been  insulted  by  the  Declaration 
of  the  Clergy  in  1682  and  subsequent  events."  At 
any  rate,  the  Gallicans  evinced  a  lively  horror  at  the 
publication  of  this  history  ;  they  pretended  it  was 
contrary  to  revealed  truth.  "  which  enjoined  upon 
popes,  as  well  as  on  other  members  of  society,  sub- 
mission to  the  civil  authority " ;  even  the  bishops 
bestirred  themselves  against  the  legend  of  St.  Gregory 
VII.;  the  parliament  grew  excited,  5nd  spoke  of  for- 
bidding the  publication  and  execution  of  the  pontifical 
briefs.  The  Archbishop  of  Paris  had  the  boldness  to 
write  to  the  pope  begging  him  "  to  shut  his  eyes  to 
this  affair,  for  he  needed  all  his  courage  not  to  forbid 
the  office  by  a  mandate/'  The  more  moderate,  such 
as  Mgr.  d'Hallencourt,  Bishop  of  Verdun,  while  not 
daring  to  question  the  sanctity  of  Gregory  VII.,  still 
thought  that  he  had  done  penance  for  his  sin,  for, 
said  they,  whatever  the  faults  of  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV.  may  have  been,  the  pope  had  no  right  to 
deprive  him  of  his  crown,  or  to  free  his  subjects  from 
their  allegiance.  The  general  assembly  of  the  clergy 
in  1730  resolved  to  oppose  the  cultus  of  him  whom 
they  dared  to  call  merely  Gregory  VII.;  the  parlia- 
ment was  on  the  point  of  stirring  up  a  fresh  storm 
when  the  pacific  Fleury  succeeded  in  calming  the 
agitation ;  finally,  "  by  order  of  the  king,"  the  affair 
was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  magistrates  in 


1 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    203 

order  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  council  of  state.  The 
matter  was  then  let  drop,  but  until  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  France  took  no  share  in  the 
cultus  offered  by  the  world  to  the  memory  of  St. 
Gregory  VII. 

4.  The  consequences  of  this  fancy  for  special 
liturgies  and  Breviaries  of  each  diocese  were  to  silence 
the  church,  in  order  to  leave  unauthorized  teachers 
free  to  speak ;  to  break  the  bonds  of  unity  which 
hitherto  had  put  one  uniform  form  of  prayer  into  the 
mouths  of  the  ministers  of  the  church ;  and  to  place 
the  liturgy  in  a  false  position  in  France,  which  led  to 
very  evil  results  during  the  period  of  the  revolution. 
The  following  fact  will  give  an  idea  of  the  con- 
sequences.1 In  1798  nine  hundred  priests  were 
imprisoned  at  Rochefort ;  some  Breviaries  were  con- 
veyed to  them,  greatly  to  their  joy,  as  they  thought 
they  would  now  be  able  to  recite  the  divine  office  in 
common;  but  how  bitter  was  their  disappointment 
to  find  that  the  Breviaries  came  from  different 
dioceses,  and  consequently  all  common  recitation  of 
the  office  seemed  impossible.  This  fact  has  been 
narrated  by  the  Abbe  Menochet,  Vicar-general  of  Le 
Mans,  one  of  the  survivors.  Inconveniences  of  the 
same  sort  must  soon  have  become  universally  felt ; 
after  the  new  arrangement  of  dioceses  in  1801,  when 
the  old  boundaries  were  swept  away,  and  portions  of 

1  Quoted  from  Dom  Baumer,  Histoire  du  Breviaire,  vol.  ii. 
PP.  333-334- 


204  The  Roman  Breviary 

six  or  seven  different  dioceses  were  united  round  one 
cathedral  church,  it  often  happened  that  in  the  same 
diocese  half  a  dozen  Breviaries  and  Missals  held  their 
own  against  that  of  the  cathedral. 

5.  A  revolution  of  this  nature  was  not  effected 
without  protestation  from  Rome.  Clement  XII., 
1 730- 1 740,  required  M.  de  Vintimille  to  put  out  a 
pastoral  letter  withdrawing  his  Breviary,  "in  order 
that  certain  antiphons  and  responds  therein  be 
corrected  and  that  the  hymns  of  the  Sieur  Coffin, 
appellant,  be  cut  out." 

The  archbishop  would  consent  to  nothing.  When 
the  first  edition  was  exhausted,  a  new  one  was  spoken 
of,  and  the  nuncio  demanded  of  Cardinal  Fleury  that 
"  this  edition  should  be  corrected  in  conformity  with 
the  criticisms  sent  from  Rome."  Still,  in  1743, 
Benedict  XIV.,  who  succeeded  Clement  XI L  in  1740, 
instructed  the  nuncio  *  not  to  insist  upon  the  public 
withdrawal,  but  to  confine  himself  to  getting  the 
corrections  required  by  Clement  XII.  adopted."  The 
pope's  forbearance  produced  no  result,  and  the  second 
edition  of  Vintimille's  Breviary  was  the  same  as  the 
first. 

We  may  find  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
Benedict  XIV.  did  not  feel  justified  in  enforcing  the 
demands  of  his  predecessor  in  the  circumstance  that, 
"  deeply  read  in  the  knowledge  of  the  customs  of 
antiquity  as  he  was,"  says  Dom  Gueranger,1  "  he  was 
1  Institutions  liturgiques^  vol.  ii.  p.  468. 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    205 

not  unmoved  by  the  serious  alterations  made  in  the 
calendar  of  the  Roman  Breviary  since  St.  Pius  V. 
The  ferias  were  greatly  reduced  in  number  by  the 
addition  of  more  than  a  hundred  new  offices,  and 
the  rank  of  a  double  given  to  the  majority  of  these 
offices  resulted  in  the  suppression  of  the  Sunday 
office  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  These  faults 
had  been  made  the  most  of  by  the  innovators  in 
France.  Ought  one,  therefore,  to  leave  untouched  a 
state  of  things  which  had  given  a  pretext  for  many 
people  to  regard  their  abandonment  of  the  Roman 
service-books  as  unjustifiable?  The  pope  began  by 
forming  a  resolution,  to  which  he  remained  faithful 
throughout  the  eighteen  years  of  his  pontificate,  i.e. 
to  add  no  new  office  to  the  Breviary.  It  is  true  he 
conferred  upon  St.  Leo  the  Great  the  title  of  Doctor, 
but  this  saint  had  been  in  the  calendar  for  centuries. 
Next,  he  set  about  reforming  the  Breviary."  How 
this  revision  proceeded  and  why  it  came  to  nothing 
we  shall  now  endeavour  to  relate,  following  M. 
Batiffol 1  and  Dom  Baumer. 2 

1  History  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  p.  289  et  seqq.  (Eng.  trans.). 
This  writer  has  had  the  advantage  of  studying  the  documents 
belonging  to  the  Congregation  instituted  by  Benedict  XIV.  for 
the  reform  of  the  Breviary,  and  is  the  first  to  give  an  account  of 
its  labours. 

2  Dom  Baumer,  Histoire  du  Breviaire,  vol.  ii.  372  et  seqq., 
refers  to  the  same  sources  as  M.  Batiffol,  i.e.  Roskovany,  Coeli- 
batus  et  Brev.,  vol.  v.  ;  the  report  of  Valenti,  the  Analecta  juris 
po?itificii  of  1885;  and  in  addition,  codex  xiv.  of  the  library  of 
the  monastery  of  St.  Paul  without  the  Walls. 


206  The  Roman  Breviary 

Section  3. — Attempt  at  Reform  of  the 
Roman  Breviary  under  Benedict  XIV. 

Benedict  XIV.  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  fact 
that  the  Roman  Breviary  had  lost  its  ancient  simplicity, 
and  so,  from  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  entertained 
the  idea  of  its  revision,  which  he  thought  would  find 
favour  with  all  friends  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity. 
With  this  end  in  view,  he  consulted  the  Promotor  of 
the  Faith,  Valenti,  to  whom  he  explained  the  plan  he 
had  in  view,  and  then  established  a  congregation  to 
study  the  difficulties  of  the  question  and  prepare  the 
material  necessary  for  the  undertaking  (1741).  The 
members  of  this  first  congregation  were  Filippo  Maria 
Monti,  secretary  of  the  Propaganda,  Nicholas  Anto- 
nelli,  secretary  of  the  Sacred  College,  Domenico 
Giorgi,  one  of  the  papal  chaplains ;  to  these  were 
added  the  following  theologians — Sergio,  secretary  to 
the  Inquisition,  Baldini,  consulter  of  the  Congregation 
of  Rites,  Galli,  canon  regular  of  the  Lateran,  Azzo- 
guidi  of  the  Conventuals.  The  pope's  wish  was  that 
Valenti  should  be  secretary  to  the  congregation. 

All  were  agreed  upon  the  necessity  of  a  revision 
and  reform  of  the  Breviary,  but  the  question  was  what 
methods  to  adopt  and  where  to  begin  ?  In  order  to 
throw  light  on  these  points,  the  members  of  the  com- 
mission were  obliged  to  study  two  memoranda  com- 
municated to  them  by  the  pope — the  one  in  French, 
the  other  in  Italian.     They  formed  part  of  Valenti's 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    207 

report,  but  have  never  as  yet  been  published.  The 
Italian  memorandum  suggested  "a  simple  expurga- 
tion," and  distinguished  between  what  was  essential 
{i.e.  the  number,  order,  and  division  of  the  canonical 
hours,  the  nocturns,  the  order  of  the  antiphons,  the 
lections  and  the  collects)  and  what  was  accessory  (i.e. 
the  calendar,  the  text  of  the  lections,  responds,  and 
antiphons),  maintaining  that,  while  the  first  could 
scarcely  be  altered  without  destroying  the  character  of 
the  Roman  rite,  the  second  required  reformation 
throughout.  The  French  memorandum  goes  much 
further :  it  is  grieved  to  detect  in  the  Breviary  many 
errors  which  have  escaped  the  diligence  of  former 
revisers,  though  historical  criticism  had  pointed  them 
out.  With  regard  to  the  arrangement  of  the  psalms, 
it  states  that  there  are  some  which  are  very  often  re- 
cited during  the  week,  while  others  hardly  ever  occur, 
and  that  the  longest  psalms  come  on  Sundays  and 
feasts,  when  priests  had  already  quite  enough  to  do. 
It  found  fault  with  many  antiphons  for  affording 
neither  meaning  to  the  intelligence  nor  nourishment 
to  the  soul,  which  often  were  unsuitable  to  the  office  of 
which  they  formed  a  part.  With  regard  to  feasts,  it 
drew  attention  to  the  excessive  number  of  doubles 
among  recent  saints,  while  the  ancient  saints  were 
commemorated  with  the  rank  of  a  semi-double  or 
simple  merely.  Lastly,  the  number  of  doubles  had 
the  effect  of  almost  entirely  cutting  out  the  Sunday- 
office,  which  was  devoted  to  honouring  the  mysteries 


208  The  Roman  Breviary 

of  our  Lord's  life.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  concludes 
the  memorandum,  that  many  bishops  have  seized  upon 
this  as  a  pretext  for  forsaking  the  Roman  Breviary  and 
adopting  one  for  their  own  dioceses,  to  the  injury  and 
confusion  of  the  liturgy. 

The  ideas  contained  in  both  these  memoranda  found 
supporters  among  the  members  of  the  congregation. 
Some  desired  that  the  question  of  the  arrangement  of 
the  psalms  should  be  taken  in  hand  first,  and  ap- 
proved of  the  arrangement  adopted  in  several  French 
churches.  Others  declared  that  novelties  must  be 
avoided,  that  the  Roman  arrangement  of  the  psalter 
was  ancient  and  must  not  be  lightly  set  aside, 
that  the  task  before  the  consulters  was  not  the 
creation  of  a  new  Breviary,  but  the  correction  of  the 
existing  one ;  that  for  the  present  the  question  of  the 
psalter  should  be  postponed,  while  the  calendar  must 
first  of  all  be  dealt  with  {i.e.  the  number  and  arrange- 
ment of  festivals).  This  proposal  was  accepted  by  the 
majority. 

In  order  to  set  about  correcting  the  calendar,  it  was 
important  to  know  what  had  been  the  leading  idea  in 
previous  reforms,  chiefly  in  that  of  St.  Pius  V.  Valenti 
produced  a  document  discovered  by  himself,  which 
clearly  expressed  the  ideas  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Holy 
Council  of  Trent  and  of  Pius  IV.  and  Pius  V.  In  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  in  order  to  lessen  the 
heavy  burden  of  the  ferial  ofifice,1  simple  feasts  had 
1  We  have  already  indicated  the  source  of  this  increase. 


St.  Pitts  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    209 

been  assimilated  to  semi-doubles  and  doubles,  and  so 
transferred  to  another  free  day  when  they  fell  on  a 
Sunday  or  festival.  The  result  was  that  the  ferial 
office  was  scarcely  recited  any  more  during  Lent,  that 
the  lections  from  the  Bible  were  only  read  on  rare 
occasions,  that  the  recitation  of  the  hundred  and  fifty 
psalms  in  the  course  of  a  week  was  made  impossible 
because  of  the  same  psalms  being  constantly  repeated 
in  the  common  of  saints.  This  led  St.  Pius  V.  to 
suppress  the  privilege  belonging  to  simple  feasts,  and 
to  forbid  their  transference,  to  suppress  the  obligatory 
recital  of  other  prayers  (except  the  ferial  prayers  in 
Advent  and  Lent),  to  insist  at  least  that  two  lections 
out  of  three  should  be  taken  from  Holy  Scripture. 
Between  1568  and  1741  the  number  of  doubles  and 
semi-doubles  had  increased  from  138  to  228.  The 
number  of  movable  feasts  came  to  about  36  in  the 
year,  and  thus  scarcely  ninety  days  were  left  free  for 
the  Sunday  and  ferial  offices,  and  the  festivals  granted 
to  particular  churches,  dioceses,  and  religious  orders 
have  again  to  be  deducted  from  these.  The  state  of 
the  case  being  the  same  in  1741  as  it  had  been  in 
1568,  the  thing  to  be  done  now,  as  then,  was  to  effect 
a  reduction  or  simplification  of  the  calendar. 

The  commission  discussed  the  question  as  to  which 
festivals  should  be  suppressed.  Among  the  feasts 
of  our  Blessed  Lord  there  was  only  one — the  finding 
of  the  Holy  Cross  on  the  3rd  May — which  was  nearly 
being   suppressed  or  amalgamated  with  the  feast  of 

H 


210  The  Roman  Breviary 

the  14th  September.  Another  feast — that  of  the 
Holy  Name  of  Jesus — found  no  favour  with  the  con- 
suiters,  as  it  was  of  recent  institution,  having  been 
extended  to  the  universal  church  only  since  1724  by 
Innocent  XIII.,  and  so  its  suppression  was  demanded 
by  the  commission.  As  regards  the  feast  of  our 
Blessed  Lady,  while  the  ancient  and  undisputed 
feasts,  such  as  the  Purification,  Annunciation,  Assump- 
tion, and  Nativity,  were  preserved,  a  proposal  was 
made  to  change  the  name  of  the  Assumption  to 
Pausatio,  Dormitio,  or  Transitus^  and  to  suppress  its 
octave  and  that  of  the  Nativity.  Nothing,  however, 
was  decided,  and  the  question  was  postponed  until 
the  rank  of  these  two  octaves  should  be  fixed.  Some 
of  the  consulters  wished  to  suppress  the  octave  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  but,  owing  to  disagree- 
ment among  the  members  on  this  point,  it  was  decided 
to  refer  the  matter  to  Benedict  XIV.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  decree  of  St.  Pius  V.  suppressing  the  feast 
of  our  Lady's  Presentation  should  be  put  into  force, 
but  the  question  was  re-opened  later  on.  The 
remaining  feasts — the  Name  of  Mary,  the  Holy 
Rosary,  Our  Lady  of  Pity,  Our  Lady  of  Mount 
Carmel,  the  Seven  Dolours,  the  Espousals,  the  Patron- 
age, the  Translation  of  the  Holy  House  of  Loreto, 
Our  Lady's  Expectation — found  but  feeble  support 
from  the  commission,  and,  because  they  interfered 
with  the  Sunday  office,  their  suppression  was  seriously 
considered.     As  regards  the  feasts  of  the  holy  angels, 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Cenhtry    21  1 

that  of  the  8th  May  in  honour  of  St.  Michael  was 
suppressed,  because  it  seemed  a  mere  repetition  of  that 
of  the  29th  September.  The  feast  of  the  Guardian 
Angels,  in  spite  of  its  recent  institution,  was  retained, 
because  it  directed  the  minds  of  priests  and  people 
to  the  Divine  Providence,  and  stirred  them  up  to 
beseech  their  heavenly  guardians  for  necessary  aid. 

There  were  many  and  lengthy  discussions  on  the 
subject  of  the  holy  confessors.  Those  named  in  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  such  as  the  Machabees 
(1st  August),  St.  Joseph,  St.  Joachim,  and  St.  Anne, 
were  to  be  retained.  Although  it  was  desired  that 
St.  Joachim  and  St.  Anne  should  be  commemorated 
together  by  one  festival,  in  order  to  add  to  the  number 
of  free  Sundays,  no  difficulties  were  raised  con- 
cerning the  two  feasts  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  or 
the  feasts  of  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists,  including 
St.  Barnabas,  or  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Innocents.  St. 
Mary  Magdalen's  feast  was  to  be  retained,  while  St. 
Martha's  was  reduced  to  the  rank  of  a  simple.  The 
question  of  the  secondary  feasts  of  the  Apostles  then 
came  up  for  discussion.  No  difficulty  was  made  about 
the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  St.  John  before  the  Latin 
Gate,  St.  Peter's  Chains,  but  it  was  suggested  that 
the  two  feasts  of  St.  Peter's  Chair  should  be  amal- 
gamated ;  but  nothing  was  decided,  out  of  respect  to 
the  decrees  of  Paul  IV.  and  the  reasons  brought  for- 
ward by  Sirleto.  The  commemoration  of  St.  Paul 
on  the  30th  June  was  only  to  be  kept  in  churches 


212  The  Roman  Breviary 

dedicated  in  his  honour.  The  anniversaries  of  the 
dedications  of  the  three  great  Roman  basilicas,  the 
Lateran,  St.  Peter's,  and  St.  Paul's,  were  to  remain 
distinct,  but  the  feast  of  the  5th  August,  instead  of 
being  called  Our  Lady  of  the  Snows,  was  to  have 
the  name  of  Dedication  of  St.  Mary  Major's.  Many 
difficulties  arose  over  the  saints  in  general,  and  the 
principles  according  to  which  they  were  to  be  sup- 
pressed or  retained.  The  members  of  the  commission 
got  tired  and  did  not  always  agree,  and  it  became 
almost  impossible  to  get  them  to  assemble  for  a 
session.  At  the  earnest  request  of  the  pope,  some  of 
them  continued  their  special  work,  and  a  meeting 
was  held  on  the  15th  July  1742.  Valenti  proposed 
that  the  feasts  which  Father  Guyet,  S.J.,  in  his 
Hortologia,  said  were  celebrated  throughout  the  whole 
church  should  be  retained.  The  proposition  was 
adjourned,  for  the  question  of  the  principles  to  be 
followed  was  more  pressing  at  the  moment.  The 
eight  following  rules  were  passed:1  1.  all  the  saints 
mentioned  in  the  canon  of  the  Mass  were  to  be 
retained;  2.  also  those  mentioned  in  the  ancient 
Roman  sacramentaries  ;  3.  no  saint  was  to  be  rejected 
whose  authentic  acts  were  in  existence,  and  who  had 
been  celebrated  by  any  of  the  Fathers,  provided  they 
had  always  received  a  cultus  ;  4.  canonized  popes 
who  had  received  a  cultus  from  early  times  were  to 
be  retained  ;  5.  also  holy  doctors,  6.  and  founders 
1  See  Roskovany,  p.  586,  Analecta  juris  pontiff  p.  523. 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    2 1 3 

of  religious  orders  ;  7.  one  saint  to  represent  each 
nation  of  Christendom  was  to  be  retained  ;  8.  all 
other  saints  were  to  be  cut  out  unless  the  devotion 
of  the  whole  church,  or  some  specially  urgent  reason, 
did  not  decide  to  the  contrary. 

August  and  September  were  spent  in  investigating 
the  ancient  sacramentaries  and  calendars,  and  the  work 
of  bringing  the  results  into  form  was  entrusted  to  Galli, 
who  occupied  the  autumn  in  composing  the  revised 
calendar.  The  number  of  festivals  suppressed  was  at 
least  ninety-five,1  many  of  them  simples,  and  many 
of  those  contained  in  the  supplement  to  the  Breviary. 
The  list  of  saints  was  a  mere  catalogue ;  and  in  order 
that  it  should  become  a  calendar  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  word,  it  was  necessary  to  regulate  the  privilege 
attaching  to  the  ferias  in  Lent,  and  also,  as  far  as 
possible,  those  in  Advent.  It  was  proposed  to  sup- 
press all  feasts  falling  in  Lent  except  the  Annuncia- 
tion, St.  Joseph,  and  St.  Peter's  Chair.  It  was 
decided  to  leave  untouched  the  rank  of  festivals 
established  by  Clement  VIII.  and  Urban  VIII.,  as 
well  as  the  general  rubrics,  and  the  table  relating  to 
the  concurrence  of  feasts,  but  it  was  necessary  to 
fix  the  rank  of  the  festivals  retained.  It  was  agreed 
to  maintain  the  rank  of  a  double  of  the  first  class  for 
ten  feasts,  i.e.  the  six  feasts  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  the 

1  We  cannot  enumerate  them  all  here  :  they  fill  a  whole  page 
in  Batiffol,  pp.  315-316  in  the  Eng.  trans.  Ct.  Baumer,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  384-385  ;  also  Appendix,  column  v. 


214  The  Raman  Breviary 

Assumption,  St.  John  Baptist,  SS.  Peter  and  Paul, 
and  All  Saints.  There  were  to  be  twenty-seven 
feasts  of  the  second  class,  twelve  greater  doubles, 
twenty-three  lesser  doubles,  twenty-seven  semi- 
doubles.  The  number  of  simples  amounted  to  sixty- 
three,  and  there  were  twenty-nine  saints  merely  com- 
memorated at  Vespers  and  Lauds.  In  addition, 
each  church  could  celebrate  as  a  double  of  the  first 
class  the  anniversary  of  its  dedication  and  the  feast 
of  its  titular  or  patron  saint. 

The  calendar  was  submitted  to  the  pope,  who 
expressed  his  approval,  and  asked  that  it  should  be 
examined — at  least,  so  says  Valenti.  In  reality, 
Benedict  XIV.  was  not  satisfied,  as  M.  Batiffol  proves 
by  publishing  a  letter  of  the  pope  to  Cardinal  de 
Tencin  of  the  7th  June  1743.  From  this  it  appears 
that  the  pope  was  desired  to  satisfy  the  punctilious 
criticism  of  the  period  by  publishing  a  Breviary  "  in 
which  everything  will  be  taken  from  Holy  Scripture, 
which  contains  many  things  concerning  the  mysteries 
commemorated  by  the  church,  and  concerning  the 
Apostles  and  the  Holy  Virgin.  What  is  not  furnished 
by  Holy  Scripture  will  be  supplied  from  the  authentic 
writings  of  the  early  Fathers.  As  for  the  other 
saints  at  present  contained  in  the  Breviary,  it  will 
be  sufficient  to  simply  commemorate  them."  All 
this  may  be  an  innovation  ;  "  still  such  a  criticism 
seems  much  more  preferable  than  that  which  re- 
proaches the  church  with  harbouring  what  is  apocry- 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    2 1  5 

phal  or  doubtful.  However  carefully  the  new 
Breviary  may  be  drawn  up,  criticism  of  this  sort  is 
unsuitable."1 

The  members  of  the  first  commission  did  not  fall 
in  with  the  plans  of  Benedict  XIV.  Under  pressure 
from  different  sides,  the  sovereign  pontiff  agreed  that 
a  commission  of  five  cardinals  (Gentili,  Silvio  Valenti, 
Monti,  Tamburini,  and  Bezozzi)  should  reconsider  the 
project.  Luigi  Valenti  was  to  be  the  secretary  of 
this  commission  of  cardinals.  In  the  first  session, 
the  members  agreed  to  accept  the  calendar  proposed 
by  the  consulters,  but  it  was  considered  suitable  to 
take  the  advice  of  Cardinal  de  Tencin  as  a  personage 
of  great  influence  in  France,  who  could  do  much  to 
make  the  reform  accepted  there.  This  took  time, 
and  meanwhile  the  distribution  of  the  psalter  was 
taken  in  hand  ;  the  innovations  introduced  in  France 
had  found  some  partisans  in  Italy,  but  the  consultors 
were  unanimous  in  declaring  again  that  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  Roman  psalter  was  ancient,  and  must  not 
be  interfered  with.  In  order  to  give  greater  weight 
to  their  opinion,  they  decided  once  more  to  investigate 
the  Roman  libraries  and  archives.  The  result  was 
summarized  by  Galli  in  a  memoir  to  the  effect  that 
none  of  the  arrangements  of  the  psalms  now  in  vogue 
in  France  or  proposed  elsewhere  were  preferable  to 
the  ancient  Roman  distribution,  and  the  commission 
endorsed  this  opinion. 

1  Corresp.  de  Rome,  vol.  792,  p.  21. 


216  The  Roman  Breviary 

They  next  took  in  hand  the  transference  of  feasts, 
but  were  unable  to  come  to  any  agreement.  In  the 
midst  of  these  events,  the  rumour  spread  that 
Benedict  XIV.  took  little  interest  in  the  correction 
of  the  Breviary;  to  counteract  this,  the  pope  appointed 
a  new  consulter,  Lercari,  who  had  been  in  France  and 
was  secretary  to  the  Propaganda,  and  then  invited 
the  consulters  and  cardinals  to  hold  a  sitting  in  his 
presence  on  the  29th  September  1744. 

Benedict  XIV.  addressed  them  himself  on  the 
necessity  for  reform,  and  the  method  to  be  followed — 
necessity,  for  things  were  now  in  almost  the  same 
state  as  they  were  at  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Trent; 
and  as  for  method,  the  pope  approved  of  the  resolu- 
tion not  to  interfere  with  the  existing  distribution  of 
psalms ;  he  approved  of  the  distinction  of  rank 
among  festivals,  and  also  the  eight  rules  for  regulat- 
ing the  admission  of  saints  into  the  calendar,  only 
to  these  he  wished  to  add  a  ninth.  Since  the  saints 
in  the  calendar  had  been  canonized,  some  before 
Alexander  III.  by  general  consent  of  the  church, 
others  after  Alexander  III.  by  a  solemn  decree  of 
canonization,  others  by  the  fact  that  the  popes  had 
prescribed  an  office  in  their  honour  throughout  the 
church,  it  was  important  not  to  confuse  these  three 
classes,  but  to  determine  what  was  necessary  with 
regard  to  each  separately.  The  pope  encouraged 
them  to  examine,  correct,  and  even  replace  by 
new  matter  the  several  parts  of  the  Breviary ;   they 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    2 1 7 

were  to  distribute  the  labour  among  themselves,  but 
to  discuss  everything  in  common. 

They  resumed  work  after  the  autumn  vacation  : 
very  little  arose  out  of  the  examination  of  the 
lectionary,  and  only  a  few  questions  followed  upon 
the  examination  of  the  antiphons  and  responds.  In 
fine,  the  office  de  Tempore  did  not  come  under  dis- 
cussion. Upon  a  consulter  proposing  to  replace  the 
short  lection  at  Prime  by  the  reading  of  a  canon  of 
some  council,  the  pope,  as  soon  as  he  had  heard  of 
the  suggestion,  at  once  informed  the  commission 
that  their  labours  were  not  those  of  innovation,  but 
of  a  reform  of  the  Breviary.  The  proper  of  saints 
was  next  taken  in  hand.  A  consulter  suggested  a 
new  office,  with  more  appropriate  antiphons  and 
responds,  for  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  but,  out  of 
respect  for  the  past,  this  office  was  not  accepted,  and 
only  the  homily  was  replaced  by  another.  It  was 
not  without  difficulty  that  the  secretary  of  the  com- 
mission was  able  to  present  the  result  of  the  labours 
achieved  up  to  22nd  June  1746,  i.e.  a  copy  of  the 
reformed  Breviary  for  the  first  six  months  of  the 
year,  accompanied  by  a  memoir  explaining  the  pro- 
posed alterations.  The  pope  was  highly  satisfied, 
and  ordered  the  speedy  accomplishment  of  the  same 
work  for  the  second  half  of  the  year,  and  the  whole 
was  finished  by  Easter  1747.  Nothing  remained  but 
the  final  decision  of  his  Holiness. 

The  commission  showed  the  same  respect  for  the 


2 1 8  The  Roman  Breviary 

ancient  elements  in  the  Breviary  as  it  had  done  to- 
wards the  distribution  of  the  psalter  de  Tempore,  and 
thereby  clearly  dissociated  itself  from  the  Gallican 
liturgists.  Its  aim  was  to  work  in  conformity  with 
the  Council  of  Trent  and  St.  Pius  V.,  to  give  greater 
clearness  to  the  ideas  by  which  they  were  animated, 
i.e.  to  prevent  the  festivals  of  saints  from  becoming 
too  numerous,  and  so  interfering  with  the  Sunday  and 
ferial  offices ;  but  it  would  seem  as  if  they  failed  in 
realizing  this  aim,  for  lack  of  solid  reasons,  a  criterium 
and  tact ;  and  some  saints  were  retained  who  never 
were  the  object  of  universal  devotion  in  spite  of 
their  antiquity,  while  the  exclusion  of  others  more 
popular,  for  the  sole  reason  of  their  being  less 
ancient,  was  to  be  regretted.  The  commission  took 
scrupulous  pains  to  purge  the  text  of  the  Breviary 
from  errors  of  all  sorts ;  and  in  our  days  we  should 
perhaps  be  more  conservative  in  drawing  up  the 
historical  legends ;  but  towards  the  close  of  its  labours 
the  commission  seemed  to  abate  its  rigorism,  for  it 
retained  some  antiphons  in  the  common  of  saints  of 
which  the  authenticity  was  not  proved. 

Why  did  not  Benedict  XIV.  ratify  the  project 
placed  before  him  ?  M.  Batiffol  has  shown  from  the 
pope's  own  correspondence  that  he  was  animated  by 
real  zeal  for  the  reform  of  the  Breviary.1     But,  accus- 

1  See  the  letters  of  Benedict  XIV.  to  Cardinal  Tencin  in 
Batiffol,  History  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  p.  346  et  seqq.,  Eng. 
trans. 


St.  Pius  V.  to  End  of  Eighteenth  Century    219 

tomed  as  he  was  to  do  everything  himself,  he  was 
unwilling  merely  to  adopt  the  labours  of  others,  and 
desired  this  edition  of  the  Breviary  should  be  entirely 
his  own  work.  He  took  it  up  as  his  personal  work, 
but,  as  he  wrote  to  Peggi  in  175 5,  "  some  time  would 
be  needed,  and  one  cannot  find  it  easily  ;  or  if  one 
finds  it,  the  weight  of  years  and  infirmities  makes  itself 
felt."  Next  year,  after  the  question  of  the  Greek  rite 
had  been  decided,  the  Breviary  came  again  to  the  fore, 
but  attacks  of  gout  and  press  of  business  overwhelmed 
the  pope,  and  he  found  little  leisure  for  the  undertak- 
ing, although  he  much  desired  to  set  to  work  upon  it. 
On  the  6th  April  1758  he  wrote  again,  "the  task  is 
a  difficult  one,  and  the  age  hard  to  satisfy."  Three 
weeks  later  his  work  was  interrupted  by  death  (4th 
May  1758). 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ROMAN  BREVIARY  IN  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

Section  i.— The  Period  after  the  Death 
of  Benedict  XIV. 

The  projected  reform  of  the  Breviary  inaugurated  by 
Benedict  XIV.  was  never  realized  ;  and  while  it  was 
engaging  the  attention  of  the  pope  at  Rome,  almost 
the  whole  of  France  had  adopted  local  Breviaries,  in 
which  one  looked  in  vain  for  the  original  book  as  it 
had  been  given  to  the  world  by  Pius  V.,  Clement  VIII., 
and  Urban  VIII.,  and  moreover  these  Breviaries  were 
almost  entirely  independent  of  one  another — liturgical 
unity  was  at  an  end.  Germany  and  Austria  also 
were  more  or  less  adopting  innovations,  either  through 
French  influence  or  owing  to  contact  with  Lutheran 
Protestantism.  The  Cologne  Breviary  of  1780  differed 
considerably  from  the  Roman :  in  it  the  preparatory 
and  concluding  prayers  {Aperi  and  Sacrosanctce)  were 
suppressed,  and  also  the  repetition  of  antiphons,  which 
were  only  to  be  said  entire  once  after  the  psalms ;  the 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  221 

prayers  of  the  ferial  office  were  changed  or  curtailed  ; 
entire  verses  were  altered  in  the  hymns,  so  too  were 
several  lections  in  the  proper  de  Tempore,  many  legends 
were  cut  out  of  the  proper  of  Saints,  etc.;  Josephist 
and  Febronian  tendencies  were  shown  by  the  sup- 
pression of  passages  which  celebrated  the  authority 
of  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  the  office  of  St. 
Gregory  VII.  was  entirely  omitted.  The  example 
of  Cologne  was  followed  at  Miinster  and  Trier.  The 
Miinster  Breviary  of  1784  introduced  a  radical  change 
into  the  proper  of  Saints  by  the  simplification  or 
suppression  of  a  great  number  of  feasts,  and  in  the 
Trier  Breviary  there  was  also  much  that  was  capri- 
cious, though  not  to  the  same  extent. 

In  this  way  the  rationalistic  temper,  encouraged 
by  Josephism  and  Febronianism,  destroyed  all  real 
knowledge  of  the  Breviary  in  these  and  many  other 
churches  of  Germany,  and  more  than  a  century 
passed  before  their  return  to  the  Roman  office  was 
brought  about.  In  the  meantime,  the  popes  devoted 
their  energies  to  combating  the  organized  conspiracy 
of  Jansenists  and  rationalists  of  all  sorts  directed 
against  the  worship  of  our  Blessed  Lord  and  the 
Holy  Eucharist.  To  Clement  XIII.  (1758-1769)  we 
owe  the  first  institution  of  the  festival  of  the  Sacred 
Heart,  already  celebrated  for  nearly  a  century  (since 
1688)  in  France,  at  Coutances  in  Normandy.  Every- 
one knows  the  circumstance  from  which  this  feast 
took   its   origin,    and   how   our   Lord    used    as    His 


222  The  Roman  Breviary 

instrument  a  humble  religious  of  the  Visitation  at 
Paray  le  Monial,  Blessed  Margaret  Mary  Alacoque. 
The  festival  made  its  way  very  slowly,  and  at  first 
was  confined  to  a  small  number  of  churches.  At 
length,  in  response  to  the  petition  of  certain  sovereigns 
and  of  a  large  number  of  Polish,  Spanish,  and  Italian 
bishops,  Clement  XIII.  gave  permission  in  1765  for 
a  special  office  in  honour  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus, 
but  it  was  only  under  Pius  IX.  that  the  feast  was  ex- 
tended to  the  universal  church  in  1856.  Clement  XIII. 
established  also  the  feasts  of  St.  Camillus  of  Lellis  as 
a  double,  St.  Lawrence  Justiniani  as  a  semi-double, 
and  St.  Juliana  dei  Falconieri  as  a  double,  and  thus, 
after  an  interval  of  eighteen  years,  during  the  reign  of 
Benedict  XIV.,  new  festivals  were  again  added  to  the 
calendar. 

Clement  XIV.  (1769-1774),  being  a  Franciscan, 
aimed  at  increasing  the  glory  of  the  saints  of  his 
order ;  he  advanced  the  feast  of  the  Stigmata  of  St. 
Francis  to  the  rank  of  a  double,  also  the  feasts  of 
St.  Fidelis  of  Sigmaringen,  St.  Joseph  of  Cupertino, 
St.  Jerome  Emilian,  St.  Joseph  Calasanctius,  and  St. 
Jane  Frances  de  Chantal. 

Pius  VI.  (1775-1799)  raised  the  Beheading  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist  to  the  rank  of  a  greater  double,  and 
those  of  St.  Pius  V.  and  St.  John  Cantius  to  the  rank 
of  doubles,  besides  instituting  the  two  festivals  of  St. 
William  and  St.  Pascal  Baylon. 

The   opening    years    of    the    nineteenth    century 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth   Century  223 

scarcely  seemed  the  time  for  returning  to  the  Roman 
office  in  France.  Immediately  after  the  concordat  of 
1801.  the  confusion  consequent  upon  the  new  circum- 
scriptions of  dioceses  turned  the  minds  of  the  bishops 
towards  the  question  of  a  uniform  liturgy  for  the 
whole  of  France,  but  no  one  thought  of  the  simplest 
way  of  bringing  this  about,  viz.  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Roman  Breviary.  u  But,"  says  Dom  Gueranger,1 
"  God  did  not  permit  this  anti-catholic  undertaking  to 
come  to  anything.  A  commission  was  appointed  to 
draw  up  new  service-books  for  the  church  of  France, 
but  the  result  of  its  labours  was  never  made  public. 
The  project  fell  through,  and  the  only  trace  of  it  is 
to  be  found  in  the  Organic  Articles." 

But  Napoleon  being  emperor,  and  an  emperor, 
too,  whom  the  pope  had  crowned,  must  needs  have  a 
chapel  royal,  and  a  chapel  royal  must  follow  a  ritual 
of  some  sort.  The  ancient  court  of  France  had 
followed  the  Roman  use  since  Henri  III.,  but  the 
new  emperor  abolished  the  Roman  liturgy,  and  de- 
cided that  the  Parisian  service-books  alone  should  be 
used  in  his  presence.  So  long  as  the  empire  lasted, 
no  new  liturgy  adapted  for  the  use  of  any  one  par- 
ticular diocese  was  put  out,  not  even  a  new  edition  of 
the  Parisian  service-books  of  Archbishop  de  Venti- 
mille.  Louis  XVIII.,  for  reasons  of  etiquette,  re- 
established the  Roman  liturgy  in  his  chapels  royal, 
and  during  the  Restoration  there  was  much  liturgical 
1  Institutions  liturgiques,  vol.  ii.  p.  591. 


224  The  Roman  Breviaiy 

activity  on  the  lines  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  though  with  signs  of  a  tendency  in  a  better 
direction.  Under  Louis  Philippe,  the  church  of 
Quimper,  which  had  been  faithful  to  the  Roman  use 
up  to  1835,  adopted  a  new  Breviary,  which  contained 
an  office  for  the  anniversary  of  the  ordination  of  each 
priest,  to  be  recited  as  a  semi-double  on  the  first  free 
day  after  Trinity  Sunday.  The  "  presbyterian  "  spirit 
manifested  itself  in  a  manner  never  known  before  ; 
among  the  lections  chosen  for  this  office,  there  were 
some  for  deacons,  and  even  sub-deacons — the  bishop 
alone  was  entirely  forgotten ;  the  privilege  was 
denied  him  of  interrupting  the  course  of  the  liturgy 
of  the  universal  church,  but  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  an  individual  thus  inserted  annually  into  the 
calendar  will  afterwards  find  a  place  in  heaven.1 

All  these  novelties  and  differences  resulted  in  pro- 
ducing a  reaction  ;  distaste  and  weariness  gave  rise 
to  a  feeling  of  restlessness,  and  it  came  to  be  felt 
among  the  clergy  that  the  first  thing  to  be  done  was 
to  fall  into  line  with  the  Roman  church ;  all  agreed 
that  "  if  the  lex  credendi  follows  from  the  lex  orandi, 
the  latter  ought  to  be  fixed,  universal,  and  promul- 
gated by  an  infallible  authority."2 

Accordingly,  from  1822  onwards,  the  new  edition 
of  the  Parisian  Breviary  was  relieved  of  several  of  the 
anti-liturgical  principles  which  had  hitherto  disfigured 

1  Vide  Dom  Gueranger,  Inst  liturgy  vol.  ii.  pp.  611-612. 

2  15.,  loc.  cit.,  p.  613. 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  225 

it.  By  a  pastoral  letter  of  Mgr.  de  Quelen,  the  feast  of 
the  Sacred  Heart  was  established  with  due  solemnity, 
the  cultus  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  increased,  and  All 
Saints  advanced  to  a  higher  rank  :  the  doctrine  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception  was  clearly  indicated  in 
the  collect  for  the  feast.  The  Sulpicians  played  the 
chief  part  in  carrying  out  this  reform,  such  as  it  was. 
The  Jansenist  party  took  the  alarm  ;  and  although  the 
work  of  Vigier  and  Mesenguy  still  remained  untouched, 
protests  were  made  against  even  these  ameliorations, 
but  in  vain,  for  the  work  of  1736  was  unable  to  hold 
its  own.  Within  less  than  two  hundred  years  it  had 
been  changed,  modified,  and  altered  in  every  sort  of 
way.  "  Mgr.  de  Vintimille's  Breviary,"  says  Dom 
Gueranger,  u  underwent  more  alterations  and  revisions 
in  a  century  than  the  Roman  Breviary  since  the  days 
of  St  Pius  V. ;  for  the  addition  of  new  offices  to  the 
Breviary  does  not  entail  any  real  alteration,  and  we 
leave  similar  additions  of  this  kind  out  of  sight  when 
speaking  of  the  variations  through  which  the  Parisian 
Breviary  has  gone/5 

It  was  the  Bishop  of  Langres,  Mgr.  Parisis,  who 
gave  the  signal  in  France  for  a  return  to  the  ancient 
traditions:  in  a  magnificent  pastoral  letter,  dated 
15th  October  1839,  he  ordained  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  1840  the  Roman  liturgy  should  be  the  liturgy 
of  Langres.  The  following  passage  concerns  the 
Breviary:  "Those  priests  who  have  hitherto  recited 
the  Breviary  of  Mgr.  d'Orcet  can  satisfy  their  obliga- 

15 


226  The  Ro7>ian  Breviary 

tion  by  continuing  to  recite  it ;  still  it  would  be  better 
for  them  to  make  use  of  the  Roman  Breviary,  and  we 
exhort  them  to  do  so."  The  letter  concludes: 
"We  implore  you  all,  our  fellow-labourers  in  the 
Lord,  to  give  to  this  great  work  all  the  zeal  of  which 
you  are  capable,  in  order  that,  as  there  is  but  one 
Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,1  there  may  be  but  one 
language  amongst  us."2 

This  example  was  followed  by  Cardinal  Gousset, 
Archbishop  of  Rheims,  in  1842,  and  soon  afterwards 
by  a  large  number  of  other  bishops,  who  utilized 
their  provincial  and  diocesan  synods  to  effect  the 
change. 

In  1853  Pius  IX.  was  able,  in  an  encyclical  to  the 
French  bishops,  to  congratulate  them  upon  the  return 
of  France  to  the  unity  of  the  Roman  liturgy  which 
had  then  taken  place  in  the  majority  of  their  dioceses. 
Those  who  still  held  back  yielded  to  the  general 
movement — Mgr.  Sibour,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  in 
1856,  the  others  a  little  later.  The  end  in  view 
was  won  all  the  more  surely  owing  to  the  slow 
and  gradual  character  of  the  movement,  and  the 
absence  of  all  pressure  or  insistence  on  Rome's 
part.  Liturgical  unity  between  Rome  and  France 
was  a  fait  accompli  at  the  period  of  the  Vatican 
Council  (1869-70).  All  are  unanimous  in  attribut- 
ing the  chief  merit  of  this  to  Dom  Gueranger, 
Abbot  of  Solesmes,  and  Pius  IX.  himself  bore 
1  Ephes.  iv.  5.  2  Gen.  xi.  1. 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  227 

witness   to   the  same   effect    in    the  brief  published 
after  the  abbot's  death  in   1875. 

A  similar  movement  took  place  in  Germany.  At 
Cologne  the  moving  spirits  were  the  Archbishops 
Johann  von  Geissel  in  1857,  and  Philip  Krementz  in 
1887  ;  at  Miinster,  a  proper  for  the  diocese  approved 
by  Rome  was  drawn  up  in  1865,  and  in  1880  the 
cathedral  adopted  the  Roman  use ;  at  Trier  the 
Roman  Breviary  became  obligatory  for  the  whole 
diocese  on  the  1st  January  1888,  etc. 

Section  II.  —  Attempts  at  Reform  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  especially  at  the 
Vatican  Council 

1.  The  popes  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  shown 
themselves  quite  as  zealous  as  their  predecessors  in 
adding  to  the  number  of  intercessors  of  the  church 
militant.  Pius  VII.  added  the  feast  of  St.  Francis 
Caracciolo  to  the  calendar  as  a  double,  raised  to  the 
same  rank  the  feast  of  St.  Clement  (23rd  November) 
and  St.  Callixtus  (14th  October),  and  prescribed  a 
second  feast  in  honour  of  Our  Lady's  Dolours  on  the 
third  Sunday  in  September  ;  lastly,  he  instituted  for 
the  States  of  the  Church  the  feast  of  Our  Lady 
Help  of  Christians,  since  extended  to  the  universal 
church.  Under  Leo  XII.  and  Pius  VIII.,  St.  Peter 
Damian  was  declared  a  Doctor  of  the  church,  and 
his  feast  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  double,  the  same 
being  done  for   St.   Bernard.     Gregory   XVI.  added 


228  The  Roman  Breviary 

to  the  Breviary  the  feast  of  St.  Alfonso  de  Liguori, 
whom  he  had  canonized,  as  a  double,  and  also  the 
feasts  of  St.  Aloysius  Gonzaga  and  St.  Antoninus 
of  Florence. 

2.  Accordingly,  notwithstanding  the  projects  for 
reform  drawn  up  under  Benedict  XIV.,  the  edition  of 
Urban  VIII.,  enriched  by  a  certain  number  of  feasts, 
remains  in  force  until  the  present  day.  For  a  moment 
the  question  of  revision  came  to  the  fore  under 
Pius  VI.,  a  scheme  was  presented  to  the  Sacred 
Congregation  of  Rites,  but  nothing  further  was  done 
at  the  time  or  until  1856.  At  that  date,  Pius  IX. 
appointed  a  commission  to  examine  the  question : — 
Is  the  reform  of  the  Breviary  opportune?  Dom 
Gueranger,  who  was  then  at  Rome,  was  one  of  the 
consultors,  and  his  correspondence  of  that  date 
contains  information  about  the  sittings  held  for  the 
study  of  the  question,  at  the  residence  of  Mgr.  Capalti. 
At  one  sitting  the  four  following  questions  were  put : 
(1)  Does  the  Roman  Breviary  require  revision?  (2)  Is 
the  present  a  suitable  time  for  revising  it?  (3)  Ought 
this  revision  to  include  the  rubrics?  (4)  Ought  this 
revision  to  include  legends,  homilies,  and  antiphons  ? 
The  first  three  questions  were  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive, the  fourth  in  the  negative.  As  far  as  we  can 
tell,  Dom  Gueranger  did  not  quite  agree  with  the 
majority  as  far  as  the  legends  were  concerned. 

3.  The  rest  of  Italy  and  the  other  Christian  countries 
viewed   things   from    another   point   of  view,  as   we 


Roman  Breviary  hi  Nineteenth   Century  229 

learn  from  a  whole  series  of  proposals,  opinions,  and 
motions  intended  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  Vatican 
Council  to  the  correction  and  simplification  of  the 
Breviary.  The  following  is  a  brief  outline,  by  order 
of  nationalities  : — 

The  French  scheme  required  reform  in  the  lections, 
which  were  not  sufficiently  expurgated,  and  still 
contained  apocryphal  matter  ;  in  hymns  of  an  obscure 
and  unpolished  style ;  in  the  distribution  of  the  psalms, 
which  ought  to  be  more  varied ;  in  the  transference 
of  feasts,  which  was  done  too  often,  and  extended 
over  too  long  an  interval;  in  the  choice  of  saints, 
too  many  of  which  belong  to  Rome,  and  are  little 
known  outside  the  Eternal  City;  in  the  length  of 
the  offices,  which  appeared  excessive,  especially  on 
Sunday. 

The  German  scheme  pointed  out  that  in  some 
places  the  Roman  Breviary  contained  what  was  not 
in  harmony  with  either  authentic  history  or  exegesis, 
and  requested  that  permission  should  be  given  to  all 
ecclesiastics  engaged  in  the  care  of  souls  to  recite  all 
the  year  round  Matins  and  Lauds  the  day  before, 
any  hour  after  2  P.M. 

The  Canadian  scheme  went  still  farther :  the 
postnlatum  contained  the  demand  for  many  im- 
portant changes,  with  the  reasons  for  the  demand 
in  each  case.  It  appealed  to  the  customs  of  the 
primitive  church,  and  complained  of  the  almost 
constant  repetition  of  the  same  psalms  caused  by  the 


230  The  Roman  Breviary 

number  of  saints'  days,  as  injurious  to  piety.  It 
asked  that,  as  far  as  possible,  and  as  a  rule,  the  whole 
psalter  should  be  recited  once  a  week ;  and  that  on 
days  when  priests  engaged  in  the  ministry  of  souls 
were  more  occupied,  such  as  the  eves  of  great  festivals, 
Saturdays,  and  Sundays  in  Advent  and  Lent,  the 
office  should  be  shortened. 

The  Italian  scheme  drawn  up  by  the  bishops  of 
Central  Italy  requested  the  correction  of  those 
passages  in  the  Breviary  which  did  not  agree  with 
historical  criticism  ;  desired  that  better  versicles  and 
more  suitable  homilies  should  be  chosen  for  some 
feasts  ;  especially  asked  for  some  sort  of  arrangement 
by  which  the  recitation  of  the  whole  psalter  would 
be  rendered  possible  at  least  several  times  in  the 
course  of  the  year. 

Credit  must  be  given  to  the  good  intentions 
prompting  these  schemes,  though  perhaps  in  some 
points  they  traversed  the  formation  and  history  of 
the  Canonical  Hours.  This  can  especially  be  laid  to 
the  charge  of  Raphael  Ricea,  the  General  of  the 
Minims,  who  had  the  boldness  to  ask  for  a  decree 
from  the  holy  council  obliging  all  seculars  and 
regulars  bound  to  the  recitation  of  the  Breviary  of 
the  Latin  church  to  recite  everywhere  one  and  the 
same  office,  day  by  day,  under  the  pretext  that  only 
by  this  means  could  complete  liturgical  uniformity 
be  obtained.  This  suggestion,  in  which  there  was 
more  zeal  than  knowledge,  could  scarcely  have  met 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  231 

with  approval,  and  would  have  produced  only  a  dead 
and  mechanical  uniformity,  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
liturgical  traditions  handed  down  for  centuries. 
Dom  Gueranger  showed  more  wisdom  in  his  op- 
position to  the  Gallican  Breviaries  when  he  asked 
that  everything  should  be  maintained  which  had  a 
historical  right  to  exist ;  for,  as  he  said,  "  the  Church 
does  not  wish  for  monotony." 

However,  the  Vatican  Council  was  never  concluded 
and  was  unable  to  deal  with  the  above  questions  : 
the  most  to  be  hoped  for  is  that  the  Congregation  of 
the  Council  should  find  time  to  study  and  report  on 
them. 

Section  3.— Additions  and  Alterations 
under  Pius  IX.  and  Leo  XIII. 

1.  Under  these  two  popes  a  remarkable  number  of 
additions  were  made  to  the  calendar.  To  start  with 
Pius  IX.,  we  have  the  Patronage  of  St.  Joseph  on  the 
third  Sunday  after  Easter,  the  Precious  Blood  on  the 
first  Sunday  in  July,  the  feast  of  the  Visitation  (2nd 
July)  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  double  of  the  second 
class,  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers  declared  a  Doctor  of  the 
church,  an  office  drawn  up  for  St.  Titus,  the  feasts  of 
St.  Timothy  and  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch  raised  to 
the  rank  of  doubles,  the  lections  of  St.  Callixtus 
(14th  October)  and  those  of  the  dedication  of  the 
basilicas  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  (18th  November) 
corrected,  the  feast  of  the  Sacred  Heart  made  obliga- 


232  The  Roman  Breviary 

tory  for  the  whole  church  with  a  special  office,  St. 
Patrick  and  St.  Andrew  Avellino  raised  to  the  rank  of 
doubles,  St.  Angela  dei  Merici  (31st  May)  added  to 
the  Breviary,  a  new  office  for  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion, the  feast  of  St.  Paul  of  the  Cross  made  obligatory 
for  the  whole  church,  St.  Joseph  raised  to  the  rank  of 
a  double  of  the  first  class,  proclaimed  patron  of  the 
universal  church,  and  his  commemoration  added  to  the 
suffrages  between  that  of  our  Lady  and  that  of  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul,  St.  Alfonso  de  Liguori  and  St.  Francis 
of  Sales  both  declared  Doctors,  and  finally,  the  feast 
of  St.  Boniface,  Apostle  of  Germany,  extended  to  the 
universal  church. 

Under  Leo  XIII.,  to  speak  only  of  his  regulations 
for  the  universal  church,  we  have  the  feasts  of  St. 
Joachim  and  St.  Anne  raised  to  doubles  of  the  second 
class,  the  Immaculate  Conception  to  a  double  of  the 
first  class  with  a  vigil,  the  feast  of  SS.  Cyril  and 
Methodius  extended  to  the  universal  church,  new 
lections  drawn  up  for  the  second  nocturn  of  the  feast 
of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  a  special  homily  assigned  to 
the  day  of  the  octave  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.  In 
1882  five  new  doubles  were  added  to  the  calendar, 
i.e.  St.  Justin,  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  St.  Cyril  of 
Alexandria,  St.  Augustine  of  Canterbury,  and  St. 
Josaphat.  In  1883  five  feasts  already  existing  were 
raised  to  the  rank  of  greater  doubles,  i.e.  the  Guardian 
Angels,  the  Commemoration  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Benedict, 
St.  Dominic,  and  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.     In   1887  the 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  233 

feast  of  the  Holy  Rosary  was  made  a  double  of  the 
second  class,  and,  the  year  following,  Leo  XIII.  ap- 
pointed a  new  office  for  the  same  solemnity.  To 
these  were  soon  added  the  Seven  Founders  of  the 
Servite  Order  (nth  February),  St.  John  Damascene 
(27th  March),  St.  John  Capistrano  (28th  March),  St. 
Sylvester,  founder  of  a  special  congregation  of 
Benedictines  (26th  November),  St.  Antonio  Maria 
Zaccaria,  founder  of  the  Barnabites  (5th  July,  which 
caused  SS.  Cyril  and  Methodius  to  be  moved  to 
the  7th),  the  Venerable  Bede  declared  a  Doctor 
of  the  church  and  placed  on  the  27th  May  for  the 
whole  church,  and  lastly,  St.  John  Baptist  de  la  Salle 
(15th  May). 

2.  Still,  Leo  XIII.  was  well  aware  that  the  addition 
of  these  new  feasts  to  those  already  of  obligation 
throughout  the  whole  church  was  prejudicial  to  both 
the  ferial  office  and  that  of  national  or  local  saints. 
In  1882  he  attempted  a  remedy  by  a  decree  afterwards 
inserted  as  a  correction  among  the  general  rubrics  of 
the  Breviary  {Tit.  X.,  de  translatione  festorum)^  accord- 
ing to  which  "  semi-doubles  and  minor  doubles,  ex- 
cepting feasts  of  doctors,  were  not  to  be  transferred 
when  they  fell  on  a  Sunday  or  coincided  with  a  feast 
of  higher  rank.  A  memorial  only  of  them  is  to  be 
made  at  Vespers  and  Lauds,  and,  if  the  rubrics  permit, 
their  legend  {i.e.  the  lections  of  the  second  nocturn 
recounting  the  saint's  life)  is  to  be  read  as  a  ninth 
lection  at    Matins."     A    note   added   in    1897  states 


234  The  Roman  Breviary 

that  "  if  the  feasts  in  question  have  to  be  dealt  with 
in  this  manner  every  year  through  their  concurrence 
with  a  feast  of  higher  rank,  they  shall  be  assigned  to 
the  first  free  day  following." 

This  produced  a  result  which  seems  to  have  been 
present  to  the  mind  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  to  wit, 
the  increase  of  the  days  on  which  the  ferial  office 
was  to  be  recited.  However,  numbers  of  clergy 
complained  that  the  new  arrangement  materially 
increased  the  pensum  of  obligatory  devotions  ;  and 
that,  moreover,  the  ferial  office,  with  which  they  were 
unfamiliar,  did  not  nourish  their  personal  devotion. 
Accordingly,  the  following  year  (5th  July  1883), 
Leo  XIII.  published  a  general  indult  giving  leave  to 
all  priests  and  religious  communities  to  recite  as  semi- 
doubles  on  ferias,  excepting  the  concluding  days  of 
Advent  and  Lent,  a  votive  office  belonging  to  the 
day  of  the  week  ;  the  office  of  the  Angels  on  Monday, 
of  the  Holy  Apostles  on  Tuesday,  of  St.  Joseph  on 
Wednesday,  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  on  Thursday, 
of  the  Passion  on  Friday,  and  of  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception on  Saturday. 

Finally,  in  1897  the  same  pope  had  inserted  among 
the  general  rubrics  an  abstract  of  the  decisions  of  the 
Sacred  Congregation  of  Rites,  hitherto  difficult  of 
access.  These  corrections  and  modifications  have 
been  worked  into  the  text  of  the  rubrics,  and  can 
only  be  discovered  by  comparing  the  new  editions  of 
the  Breviary  with  the  old. 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteeyith  Century  235 

Conclusion 

1.  Here  we  bring  to  a  close  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Breviary,  and  the  modifications  and  changes 
it  has  undergone  during  the  course  of  centuries,  and 
we  may  ask  ourselves  if  there  is  any  chance  of  a 
new  revision  in  the  immediate  or  more  remote  future? 
Some  likelihood  of  it  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  Leo  XIII.  in  1902  instituted  a  commission  for 
the  study  of  questions  relating  to  the  history  of  the 
liturgy.  The  alterations  made  in  the  rubrics  by  the 
pope  in  1897  do  not  seem  to  answer  to  the  desiderata 
frequently  expressed  since  St.  Pius  V.,  and  more 
especially  under  Benedict  XIV.  and  at  the  Vatican 
Council.  It  is  unfortunate  that  something  was  not 
done  towards  reinstating  the  ferial  office,  that  the 
permission  to  recite  the  votive  offices  almost  entirely 
frustrated  the  object  Leo  XIII.  had  in  view;  and  it 
is  unfortunate  also  that  no  new  distribution  of  the 
psalter  has  been  agreed  on,  in  order  to  do  away  with 
monotony,  and  to  reduce  the  length  of  the  office  for 
certain  ferias,  and  especially  for  Sundays. 

With  a  view  to  shortening  some  of  the  offices,  it 
might  well  be  suitable  to  cut  down  some  of  the 
legends  of  the  second  nocturn,  especially  in  the  offices 
of  more  modern  saints.  Their  burden  has  become 
especially  pressing  since  the  decree  limiting  the 
transference  of  feasts  when  the  legend  of  the  saint 
replaces   the   ninth   lection,  for   often    two   or   three 


236  The  Roman  Breviary 

lections  are  run   into   one,  each   of    them    being   as 
long  as  three  ordinary  lections. 

In  respect  of  the  extracts  from  the  Fathers,  atten- 
tion should  be  paid  to  certain  criticisms  and  studies 
recently  published.  "  In  the  majority  of  the  offices 
added  in  our  own  days,"  says  Dom  Morin,1 "  it  does 
not  seem  as  if  great  care  had  been  taken  to  select 
from  sermons  and  homilies  only  such  passages  as  are 
authentic.  Thus,  for  example,  in  spite  of  its  repeated 
revisions,  the  office,  dogmatically  so  important,  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  has  for  the  lessons  of  its 
second  nocturn  a  passage  from  the  famous  composition, 
Cogitis  me,  attributed  to  St.  Jerome,  although  the 
learned  of  the  ninth  century  had  already  entertained 
doubts  of  its  authenticity,  and  all  critics  without 
exception,  from  Baronius'  time,  have  rejected  it  as 
manifestly  apocryphal.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  pious  fraud  of 
the  learned  abbot  Ambrosius  Autpert,  one  of  the 
writers  who  have  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the 
development  of  Marian  doctrine  before  Charlemagne." 
"  As  the  Roman  church  continues  to  make  use  of 
these  passages,"  adds  Dom  Morin,  "  they  receive  from 
this  an  authority  to  which  their  origin  gives  them  no 
claim.  This  authority  I,  as  a  good  Catholic,  revere, 
and  expressly  leave  out  of  the  question  in  this  study." 
The  article  referred  to  extends  over  eight  pages,  full 
of  critical  observations  upon   the  offices  the   recital 

1  "Les  Legons  apocryphes  du  Breviaire  romain,"  article   in 
the  Revue  Benedictine  in  1891,  p.  271. 


Roman  Breviary  in  Nineteenth  Century  237 

of  which  is  obligatory  throughout  the  whole  Latin 
Church. 

As  the  Roman  calendar  becomes  more  and 
more  filled,  owing  to  new  canonizations,  the  time 
will  come  when  necessity  will  require  some  sort  of 
selection  to  be  made  in  confining  the  office  to  the 
better-known  saints,  or  to  those  more  famous  from 
the  power  of  their  intercession  or  the  devotion  paid  to 
them  by  the  people. 

2.  The  unity  of  liturgical  tradition  would  not  be 
affected  by  this,  for,  in  fact,  it  has  not  suffered  from 
those  lawful  changes  through  which  the  office  has 
passed  in  the  course  of  centuries.  M  The  official 
prayer-book  of  the  church  has  remained  in  its  main 
features  the  same  as  prescribed  by  St.  Pius  V. 
Essentially  his  Breviary  was  the  same  as  that  of 
Innocent  III.  and  the  pontifical  chapel  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  which,  in  its  turn,  was  only  an 
abridgement  of  the  public  office  recited  during  the 
eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries  in  the 
Roman  basilicas,  and  the  cathedrals  of  France, 
Germany,  and  England.  This  abridgement  had 
reference  only  to  certain  parts,  and  hence  the  name 
Breviarium.  Leo  1 1 1,  and  Charlemagne  never  dreamed 
they  were  reciting  any  other  office,  a  few  additions 
apart,  than  that  prescribed  by  St.  Gregory  the  Great 
or  his  disciples.  The  work  of  Gregory  was  nothing 
else  than  a  codification  and  abridgement  of  the 
canonical  hours  recited  during  the  fourth,  fifth,  and 


238  The  Roman  Breviary 

sixth  centuries  in  Rome,  throughout  Italy,  and  even  in 
other  countries.  Thus  the  canonical  hours  are  a 
magnificent  growth  of  divine  service,  the  germ  of  which 
had  been  planted  in  apostolic  times :  it  is  the  living 
development  of  ritual  devotions  which  have  their 
root  in  the  needs  of  the  human  heart  and  in  the 
relations  of  the  man  and  the  Christian  with  his  Creator 
and  Redeemer.1 

We  conclude  with  the  following  words  of  Dom 
Baumer  :  "  The  earthly  psalmody,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  praises  of  God  uttered  by  the  lips  of  priests 
and  monks,  either  in  their  solitary  cells  or  in  the 
choir  in  church,  are  but  the  echo  of  those  eternal 
songs  which  the  elect,  in  union  with  the  choirs  of 
saints  and  angels,  sing  to  the  melodies  of  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem  before  the  throne  of  the  Lamb.  May  we 
all  find  ourselves  among  the  elect,  that  we  may  for 
ever  be  eternally  associated  with  those  choirs  of 
blessed  spirits.  Here  below  in  our  exile  let  us  practise 
with  fervour  that  which  is  to  be  our  endless  occupation 
in  the  realms  of  bliss  in  our  Father's  House." 

"  Ut  in  omnibus  honorificetur  Deus,  per  Jesum 
Christum,  cui  est  gloria  et  imperium  in  ssecula  saecu- 
lorum.     Amen."2 

1  Don  Baumer,  Histoire  du  Breviaire,  vol.  ii.  p.  420. 
8  1  Pet.  iv.  11. 


APPENDIX 

In  the  following  tables  we  have  aimed  at  showing  the  date 
at  which  each  Saint  was  inserted  in  the  Roman  Breviary, 
the  rank  given  to  his  festival,  and  the  variations  it  has 
undergone.  It  is  often  difficult  to  give  precise  dates,  and 
so  it  has  been  thought  best  to  divide  the  history  of  the 
Breviary  into  periods  following  the  divisions  of  our  book. 
This  will  sufficiently  indicate  the  progressive  development 
of  the  cultus  of  the  Saints,  the  gradual  filling  up  of  the 
calendar  until  scarcely  any  room  remains  for  the  ferial  office, 
and  how  the  transference  of  semi-doubles  and  doubles,  which 
cannot  be  celebrated  on  the  day  on  which  they  fall,  has 
been  made  impossible. 


239 


240  Appendix 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  FOLLOWING  TABLES 

1.  The  Roman  figures  at  the  head  of  each  column  represent 
each  a  period  in  history  : — 

I.  The   patristic   period,  /.<?.,   from   the   beginning   to  the 

pontificate  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great. 
II.  The  middle  ages,  during  which  the  influence  of  Charle- 
magne at  first,  and  then  that  of  the  Franciscans,  made 
itself  felt. 
ill.  The   modern   period,  comprising,  i.   the  publication   of 

the  Breviary  of  St.  Pius  V.  (1568). 

IV.  ii.  The   additions   made   to   the  calendar  by  Sixtus  V., 

Clement  VIII.,  Urban  VIII.,  etc.,  up  to  Benedict  XIV. 

V.  iii.  The  feasts  suppressed  by  the  scheme  of  Benedict  XIV. 

vi.  iv.  The  additions  made  to  the  Breviary  from  Benedict 

XIV.  to  Pius  IX. 
vii.  v.  The  additions  under  Pius  IX.  and  Leo  XIII. 

2.  Explanation  of  the  signs  placed  against  the  names  of  the 
saints  : — 

+    =  first  inserted  in  the  Breviary. 

-    =   reduced  to  a  lower  rank. 

o  =  feast  suppressed,  or  intended  to  be  suppressed. 

x    =  feast  re-established. 

D   =  doctor  of  the  church. 

S   =  simple. 
\  d.   =   semi-double. 

II    =   double, 
g.d.   =  greater  double. 
2  c.   =  double  of  the  second  class. 
1  c.    =  double  of  the  first  class. 


Appendix 


241 


JANUARY 


I 

Calendar  of  the  Breviary.  ■ 

I. 

11. 

„, 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

Circumcision     .... 

+ 

II 

2 

Octave  of  St.  Stephen 

... 

II 

3 

,,         St.  John    . 

... 

... 

II 

4 

,,         Holy  Innocents. 

II 

5 

/  Vigil  of  Epiphany. 

\  Commem.  St.  Telesphorus 

+ 

... 

0 

6 

Epiphany.         .... 

+ 

; 

Of  the  Octave. 

8 

'» 

9 

» 

10 

\  St.  Hyginus  .... 

11 

+ 

... 

0 

12 

Of  the  Octave. 

13 

Octave  of  the  Epiphany. 

■ 

/St.  Hilary 

\  Commem.  St.  Felix  of  Nola. 

S 

id- 

...    II  D. 

14 

J  St.  Paul,  hermit 

\  Commem.  St.  Maurus. 

S 

id. 

II 

15 

16 

St.  Marcellus,  pope  .         .         .... 

+ 

17 

St.  Antony        .         .         

id- 

II 

18 

(  St.  Peter's  Chair     .          [(Assump.) 

+  Gaul. 

II 

g.d. 

\  Commem.  St.  Prisca 

+ 

f  St.  Canute      .... 

|d. 

0 

19 

-[  Commem.  SS.  Marius  and  com- 
panions. 

20 

SS.  Fabian  and  Sebastian  . 

+ 

21 

St.  Agnes          .         .         .[(23  J  an.) 

|d. 

II 

22 

SS.  Vincent  and  Anastasius  [(22  F  eb. ) 

S 

|d. 

L{ 

St.  Raymond dePenaforte [(St.  Agnes) 

|d.      0 

Commem.  St.  Emerentiana 

+ 

0 

24 

St.  Timothy       .         .         

... 

+11. 

25 

Conversion  of  St.  Paul        

+ 

g.d. 

!  26 

St.  Polycarp      .         .          [(26  Feb.) 

27 

St.  Chrysostom          .         .         .... 

-f 

28 

St.  Agnes  [secandd)   .         .         .... 

II 

s 

:    29 

St.  Francis  of  Sales  .    [(St.  Igna  tius) 

+  |d.II 

30 

St.  Martina        .... 

+  |d. 

0 

31 

St.  Peter  Nolasco      . 

-fid.il 

The  2nd  Sunday  after  Epiphany.     . . . 

+  2  c. 

0 

! 

The  Holy  Name  of  Jesus. 

\6 


242 


Appendix 


FEBRUARY 


10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 

18 

19 
20 
21 
22 

23 


24 
25 
26 

27 
28 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary,    i. 

St.  Ignatius,  martyr  [  +  (26  J.  or...) 
Purification  B.V.M.  .  [  +  or  15  Feb. 
St.  Blaise 
St.  Andrew  Corsini  . 


St.  Agatha 

/  St.  Titus 

\  Commem.  St.  Dorothea 

St.  Romuald 

St.  John  de  Matha    . 

(  St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria 

(  Commem.  St.  Apollonia 
St.  Scholastica  . 
Seven  Servite  Founders 


St.  Valentine,  martyr. 
SS.  Faustinas  and  Jovita 


St   Simeon 


St.  Peter's  Chair 
/  St.  Peter  Damian. 
\  Vigil  of  St.  Mathias 

St.  Mathias,  apostle  . 


[  +  St.  Vin 


[St.  P 


cent 


olyc. 


+  4d. 

+ 
+ 


+  S 


II  + 


III. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

2  c. 

+  11. 
+  11. 

D. 
+  11. 

2  c. 

II 

II 

S 

II 

II 

+ 

+  id. 
II 

+  j'd. 
+  11 

+  11 

g.d. 

0 

0 
0 

+  11 

D 

Appendix 


243 


MARCH 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary,    i. 

11. 

in. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

I 

2 

3 

j  St.  Casimir     .... 
\  Commem.  St.  Lucius,  pope     . 

+ 

0 

4 

5 

6 

(  St.  Thomas  Aquinas 

S 

II 

7 

-J  Commem.    SS.    Perpetua  and 
(^     Felicitas. 

8 

St.  John  of  God 

+  11 

9 

St.  Frances  of  Rome 

+  11 

10 

The  Forty  Martyrs    . 

+ 

11 

12 

St.  Gregory  the  Great 

+  11  D 

*3 

14 

15 

16 

17 

St.  Patrick         .... 

... 

II. 

18 

St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem 

... 

+  11  D. 

19 

St.  Joseph         .... 

+ 

II 

2  c. 

... 

... 

I  c. 

20 

21 

St.  Benedict      .... 

... 

+ 

II 

... 

g.d. 

22 

23 

24 

25 

Annunciation    .         .         .      [18 

Dec. 

+ 

1  c. 

26 

27 

St.  John  Damascene 

... 

+  11  D. 

28 

St.  John  Capistrano  . 

+  id. 

29 

30 
3i 

Friday  afrer  Passion  Sunday. 

The  Seven  Dolours  B.V.M. 

+ 

g.d. 

244 


Appendix 


APRIL 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

1. 

11. 

+ 

III. 
0 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

I 

2 

1    3 
4 

St.  Francis  of  Paula  . 

x  i  d.  II 

St.  Isidore         .... 

+ 

+  11 

!    5 
6 

7 

St.  Vincent  Ferrer     . 

+id.n 

0 

. 

8 
9 

10 

ii 

St.  Leo  the  Great 

+ 

II  D 

12 

13 

St.  Hermengild 
(  St.  Justin 

+id. 

14 

-[  Commem.    SS.   Tibertius  and 

+ 

... 

...  +11. 

15 
16 

1^     Valerianus 

17 
18 

St.  Anicetus,  pope     . 

... 

+ 

0 

19 

20 

21 

St.  Anselm        .... 

+11 

D 

22 

SS.  Soter  and  Caius  . 

. . . 

S 

id. 

0 

23 

St.  George         .... 

... 

S 

id. 

24 

St.  Fidelis  of  Sigmaringen 

+11 

25 

St.  Mark,  evangelist . 

... 

+  11 

26 

SS.  Cletus  and  Marcellinus 

S 

id. 

0 

27 

+11. 

28 

St.  Paul  of  the  Cross. 

29 

St.  Peter  Martyr 

+11 

30 

St.  Catharine  of  Siena 

3rd  Sunday  after  Easter,  Patron- 

... 

+id.n 

+  2  C. 

age  of  St.  Joseph 

Appendix 
MAY 


245 


4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 

11 
12 

13 
14 
15 
16 

17 
18 

19 
20 

21 
22 
23 

24 

25 
26 

27 
28 
29 
30 
3i 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary,  i. 


SS.  Philip  and  James,  apostles  . 
St.  Athanasius  .... 
(  Invention  of  the  Holy  Cross    . 
-[  Commem.  SS.   Alexander  and 
(     Juvenal 
St.  Monica 
St.  Pius  V.,  pope 
St.  John  before  the  Latin  Gate 
St.  Stanislas,  martyr 
Apparition  of  St.  Michael 
St.  Gregory  Nazianzen 
(  St.  Antoninus 

-j  Commem.    SS.    Gordian    and 
(^     Epimachus 

{SS.  Nereus  and  Achilleus 
Domitilla,  Pancras 

St.  Boniface       .... 

St.  John  Baptist  de  la  Salle  [St.  F 

St.  Ubaldus       . 

St.  Paschal  Baylon    . 

St.  Venantius    . 

/  St.  Peter  Celestine 

\  Commem.  St.  Prudentiana 

St.  Bernardine  of  Siena 


f  St.  Gregory  VII.    . 
\  Commem.  St.  Urban 
f  St.  Philip  Neri 
\  Commem.  St.  Eleutherius 

{The  Venerable  Bede 
Commem.  St.  John,  pope 
St.  Augustine  of  Canterbury 
St.  Mary  Magdalen  dei  Pazzi 
St.  Felix,  pope 
St.  Angela  de  Merici 
Friday  after  octave  of  Corpus 
Christi :  the  Sacred  Heart  of 
Jesus. 


lav, 


11. 


II 

+  id. 

+ 
+ 


S 


+ 
id. 


+ 

+  with 

Oct. 


in. 


II  D 


II 
II  D 


IV. 


V.      VI. 


VIII. 


id.  II 

i'g. 

+  id.II 

g.d. 
id. 


+  id. 

+  i'd. 
id.  II 

id. 


+  11     o 

+  id.II 


+  Jd. 


id.  II 


II. 


+  11 


+  11 
II 


+  11 

+  11 

+  11 
I  c. 


246 


Appendix 


JUNE 


I 

Calendar  of  the  Breviary.       i. 

II. 
+ 

III. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

/  SS.  Marcellinus,  Peter    .         .! 
\      and  Erasmus 

2 

id. 

S 

0 

3 
4 

St.  Francis  Caracciolo        .         .  | 

+11 

5 

St.  Boniface,  martyr 

... 

+1. 

6 
7 

St.  Norbert        .... 

+  11 

8 
9 

SS.  Primus  and  Felicianus 

+ 

10 

St.  Margaret  of  Scotland. 

11 

St.  Barnabas,  apostle 

/  St.  John  of  St.  Facundus 

\  Commem.  St.  Basilides,  etc. 

+ 

II 

d.g. 
+  11 

0 

12 

13 

St.  Antony  of  Padua 

+ 

0 

xll 

H 

St.  Basil  the  Great     . 

+ 

II 

15 

St.  Vitus,  Modestus,  etc.  . 

+ 

0 

16 

17 

18 

St.  Marcus  and  Marcellianus 
(  St  Juliana  Falconieri 

+ 

+  Jd. 

0 

II 

19 

-J  Commem.   SS.    Gervasius  and 
^      Protasius 

... 

+ 

20 

St.  Silverius,  pope     . 

+ 

s 

0 

21 

St.  Louis  Gonzaga     . 

+ 

0 

II 

22 

St.  Paulinus       .... 

+ 

23 

Vigil  of  St.  John  Baptist    . 

+ 

24 

Nativity  of  St.  John  Baptist 

+ 

... 

... 

... 

... 

1  c. 

25 

St.  William        .... 

... 

+11 

26 

SS.  John  and  Paul     .         .     [Lo 

cal  feast 

+ 

+ 

II 

27 

Of  the  Octave  of  St.  John  Baptist 

28 

St.  Leo  II.,  pope 

+ 

0 

29 

SS.  Peter  and  Paul    .       [  +  Dec. 

in  East 

... 

I  c. 

30 

Commem.  of  St.  Paul 

... 

+ 

0 

... 

g.d. 

Appendix 

2 

47 

JULY 

Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

[.      II. 

III. 

IV.       V.       VI.         VII. 

I 

Octave  of  St.  John  Baptist          .   . 

.     id. 

II 

C  Visitation  B.V.M 

.     +11 

g-d.     . 



2  c. 

2 

-J  Commem.    SS.   Processus  and  . 
V      Martinianus 



s 

3 

Of  the  Octave  of  St.  Peter 

4 
5 

M                                    1 

St.  Antonio  Maria  Zaccaria 

+  11. 

6 

Octave  of  St.  Peter    . 

II 

7 

SS.  Cyril  and  Methodius   . 

+  11. 

8 

St.  Elizabeth  of  Portugal   , 

+  i"d.    ' 

9 

(  The  Seven  Brothers,  martyrs 

.     +  S 

id. 

1 

IO 

I  Commem.     SS.     Rufina    and  .. 
Secunda      .         .         .         . 

.      + 

( 

3 

ii 

St.  Pius  I.,  pope        .         . 

.      + 

... 

( 

3 

-i 

St  John  Gualberto    .         .         .   .. 

II 

Commem.  SS.  Narbor  and  Felix  .. 

s 

c 

)     id. 

13 

St.  Anacletus,  pope  and  martyr     . . 

.      + 

...       c 

) 

14 

St.  Bonaventure         .          . 

.      + 

i'd. 

II  D 

15 

St  Henry          .         .         . 

.  +id. 

16 

Oui  Lady  of  Mount  Carmel 

+  g.d.    ( 

) 

17 

St  Alexis          .         .         .         .  L 

+  id.    c 

) 

18 

f  St  Camillus  of  Lellis. 

\  Commem.  St.  Symphorosa 

.      + 

c 

)     +11 

19 

St  Vincent  de  Paul  .         . 

f  St.  Jerome  Emilian          .         .   .. 

.      ... 

+  11 

.     +11 

20 

\  Commem.  St.  Margaret  . 

.      ... 

s 

c 

► 

21 

St.  Praxedes      .          .          . 

+ 

22 

St  Mary  Magdalen 

id. 

II 



d.g. 

23 

j  St.  Apollinaris         .         .          .  L. 
\  Commem.  St.  Liborius   .         .   .. 

s 

id. 

+ 

c 

24 

Vigil  St.  Christina 

/St.  James,  apostle 

\  Commem.  St.  Christopher       .   .. 

+11 

0 

2  c. 

25 

+ 

0 

26 

St.  Anne  .         .         .         .         .   .. 

+ 

0 

+g.d.  .. 

2  c. 

27 

St.  Pantaleon    .         .         .         .    + 

0 

28 

SS.  Nazarius,  Celsus,  etc.            .   ... 

+s 

i'd. 

29 

St.       Martha,      commem.      St.   ... 
Felix  II.,  pope 

s 

id. 

30 

SS.  Abdon  and  Sennen     . 

+ 

3i 

St.  Ignatius  Loyola  .         .         .  ... 

The  1st  Sunday  in  July:  Feast  ... 
of  the  Most  Precious  Blood. 

+11 

+  2  c. 

248 


Appendix 


AUGUST 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

I. 

II. 

in. 

IV.     V. 

VI. 

VII. 

f  St.  Peter's  Chains  .    [St.  Sixtu  s 
\  Commem.  The  Machabees 

ill. 

+ 

II 

g.d. 

I 

+ 

/  St.  Alfonso  de  Liguori    . 

\  Commem.  St.  Stephen  I.,  pope 

... 



+  11 

D. 

2 

+ 

3 

Invention  of  St.  Stephen,  proto- 
martyr 

... 

+ 

...      O 

4 

St.  Dominic 

|d. 

II 

... 

g.d. 

5 

St.  Mary  of  the  Snows 

+ 

II 

g-d.    ' 

6 

f  The  Transfiguration 

\  Commem.  St.  Sixtus,  etc. 

+ 

II 

g.d. 

+ 

S 

f  St.  Cajetan     .... 
\  Commem.  St.  Donatus    . 

+  Jd. 

7 

+ 

8 

SS.  Cyriac,  etc. 

+  S 

id. 

9 

Vigil.  Commem.  St.  Romanus  . 

+ 

10 

St  Lawrence,  martyr 

+ 

II 

2  c. 

11 

Of  the  Octave.  St.  Tiburtius,  etc. 

+ 

12 

St.  Clare 

+  -II 

with  Oct. 

S 

II 

13 

Of  the  Octave.     Commem.  SS. 
Hippolytus  and  Cassianus. 

+ 

0 

14 

Of  the  Octave.     Commem.  Vigil. 
St.  Eusebius. 

+ 

15 

Assumption  B.V.M.  .         .  [  +  18 

Jan. 

with  Oct. 

1  c. 

16 

St.  Hyacinth     .         .    [St.  Sixtu 

s  II. 

+  11  < 

} 

17 

Octave  of  St.  Lawrence     . 

i'd. 

II 

18 

Of  the  Octave  of  Assumption. 
Commem.   St.  Agapitus. 

+ 

19 

Of  the  Octave. 

20 

St.  Bernard       .... 

+ 

II 

..    D 

21 

St.  Jane  Frances  de  Chantal 

..  +11 

22 

Octave     of     the     Assumption. 
Commem.  St.  Timothy. 

+ 

23 

/  St.  Philip  Benizi     . 

1  Vigil 

+ 

+  11 

24 

St.  Bartholomew 

+ii 

II 

2  c. 

25 

St.  Louis  of  France  . 

+ 

26 

St.  Zephyrinus  .... 

+ 

0 

27 

St.  Joseph  Calasanctius 

..  +11 

28 

/  St.  Augustine 

\  Commem.  St.  Hermes    . 

+  11 

lib 

+ 

29 

Beheading  of  St.  John  the  Baptist 

id. 

11 

■  •  g.d. 

30  { 

St.  Rose  of  Lima 

... 

+  ii  ' 

Commem.  SS.  Felix  and  Adauctus 

+ 

31 

St.  Raymond  Nonnatus     . 

+  id. 

0 

Sunday  within  the  octave  of  the 

+ 

i  ° 

g.d. 

2  c. 

Assumption :  St.  Joachim. 

Appendix 


249 


SEPTEMBER 


Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

1. 

II.      in. 

IV.        v. 

VI. 

VII. 

f  St.  Giles         . 



... 

+ 

I 

-J  Commem.    Twelve    Brethren, 
(      martyrs 

+ 

... 

0 

2 

3 

St.  Stephen  of  Hungary    . 

+  Jd. 

4 
5 
6 

St.  Lawrence  Justiniani 

... 

+*d. 

0 

7 
8 

J  Nativity  B.V.M.     . 
\  Commem.  St.  Adrian 

+ 

II 

2  C. 

... 

+ 

9 

Of  the  Octave.     Commem.   St. 
Gorgonius 

+ 

10 

St.  Nicholas  of  Tolentino  . 

+  11 

11 

Of  the  Octave.     Commem.  SS. 
Protus  and  Hyacinthus 

... 

+ 

12 

Of  the  Octave. 

*3 

Exaltation  of  Holy  Cross  . 

+ 

II 

g.d. 

15  { 

Octave  of  the  Nativity  B.V.M. 

... 

II 

Commem.  St.  Nicomede    . 

... 

16  | 

SS.  Cornelius  and  Cyprian  [Local 

feast 

S 

id. 

Commem.  St.  Euphemia,  etc.     . 

+  Jd. 

-s 

17 

Stigmata  of  St.  Francis 

.. . 

+  OX 

id- 

0 

+11 

18 

St.  Joseph  of  Cupertino 

+  11 

19 

SS.  Januarius  and  Companions . 

+ 

+ 

-o'D 

20 

SS.  Eustace  and  Companions    . 

+  Jd. 

s 

+  id. 

-o'1) 

21 
00 

St.  Matthew,  apostle 

/  St.  Thomas  of  Villanova 

\  Commem.  St.  Maurice,  etc. 

... 

+  11 

II 

+  i'd. 

... 

2C. 

22 

/  St.  Linus        .... 
\  Commem.  St.  Thecla 

... 

+ 

23 

... 

... 

s 

24 

Our  Lady  de  Mercede 

... 

+  11 

d.g. 

25 

26 

SS.  Cyprian  and  Justina    . 

+ 

0 

27 

SS.  Cosmas  and  Damian   . 

+  S 

i'i 

28 

St.  Wenceslas    .... 

... 

+  id. 

0 

29 

Dedication  of  St.  Michael 

+ 

... 

n 

... 

...      2  C. 

30 

St  Jerome          .... 

+  11 

II  D 

Sunday  within  the  Octave  of  the 

+  11      ... 

•  ••     g.d. 

Nativity  B.V.M.:  The  Name 

of  Mary 

3rd  Sunday  in  September  :  The 

... 

+11  g.d. 

Seven  Dolours 

1 

0)  Benedict  XIV.  retained  these  two  Saints  without  their  companions. 


250 


Appendix 


OCTOBER 


I 

Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

I. 

11. 

III.      IV. 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

St.  Remigius     .... 

... 

+  £d. 

2 

The  Guardian  Angels 

+  11 

... 

g.d. 

3 
4 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi  . 

... 

+  11  with 
octave 

s 

g.d. 

5 

SS.  Placidus  and  companions     . 

... 

+ 

0 

6 

St.  Bruno           .... 

+  11 

7 

St.     Mark,     pope.       Commem. 
SS.  Sergius,  etc. 

+ 

8 

St.  Brigid          .... 

... 

+  11 

9 

St.  Denys  and  companions 

s 

id. 

... 

0 

10 

ii 

St.  Francis  Borgia     . 

... 

... 

... 

+  Jd. 

0 

12 

*3 

St.  Edward        .... 

+  id. 

14 

St.  Callixtus  I.,  pope 

... 

s 

id. 

II 

15 

St.  Teresa          .... 

... 

... 

+  £d. 
II 

16 

17 

St.  Hedwig    .     [St.  Ignatius,  ma 

rtyr 

... 

+  Jd. 

0 

18 

St.  Luke,  evangelist . 

... 

+ 

ri 

2  c. 

19 

St.  Peter  of  Alcantara 

+  i'd. 

20 

St.  John  Cantius 

f  St.  Hilarion    .... 

... 

... 

0 

+  11 

21 

-j  Commem.     SS.     Ursula     and 
(     companions. 

... 

+ 

s    ... 

0 

22 

23 

24 

25 

SS.  Chrysanthus  and  Daria 

+ 

26 

St.  Evaristus,  pope    . 

+ 

27 

Vigil 

... 

+ 

0 

28 

SS.  Simon  and  Jude,  apostles     . 

+  II 

11 

... 



2  c. 

29 

30 

31 

Vigil. 

1st  Sunday  in   October :    Feast 

2  C. 

of  the  Most  Holy  Rosary. 

Appendix 


25< 


NOVEMBER 


10 

II 

12 
*3 
14 
15 
16 

17 

iS 


19 

20 
21 
22 

23 

24 

25 

26  J 

27 
28 
29 
30 


All  Saints  . 

All  Souls. 
Of  the  Octave. 
(  St.  Charles  Borromeo 
-j  Commem.  St.  Vitalis  and  Agri- 
V.     cola 
Of  the  Octave. 


Octave  of  All  Saints.    Commem. 

Four  Coronati 
/  Dedication  of  the  Lateran 
\  Commem.  St.  Theodore  .  j 

/  St.  Andrew  Avellino 
\  Commem.  SS.  Tryphon,  etc.  . 
St.  Martin.  Commem.  St.  Mennas 
St.  Martin,  pope 
St.  Didacus 
St.  Josaphat,  martyr . 
St.  Gertrude     . 

St.  Gregory,  thaumaturgus         .  j 
Dedication   of    St.    Peter's   and 
St.  Paul's 

{St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary 
Commem.  St.  Pontianus 
St.  Felix  de  Valois    . 
Presentation  B.V.M. 
St.  Cecilia 

(  St.  Clement,  pope  . 
\  Commem.  St.  Felicitas 
St.  John  of  the  Cross 
St.  Catharine     . 
St.  Sylvester,  abbot  . 
Commem.  St.  Peter  of  Alexandria 


Vigil.    Commem.  St.  Saturninus 
St.  Andrew,  apostle  . 


+ 
+ 

+ 

+  4d, 

S 


+  Jd 

+ 


?  + 

+ 
+ 
+ 

-Hd. 


+ 
II 


III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

1  c. 

II 

... 

+  11 

0 

II 

+  id. 

0 

... 

II 

II 

id. 

+ 
id. 

+  11 

0 
0 

+11 

s 
II 

+  11 

0 
0 

0 

id. 
id. 

+  11 
xll 

II 

... 
II 

g.d. 

II 

s 

+  id. 
0 

0 

+11 

+ 
II 

... 

2C. 

252 


Appendix 


DECEMBER 


1 

I 

2 

Calendar  of  the  Breviary. 

1. 

11. 

in. 

IV.    1 

v. 

VI. 

VII. 

St.  Bibiana        .... 

id. 

0 

3 

St.  Francis  Xavier     . 
/  St.  Peter  Chrysologus 
\  Commem.  St.  Barbara    . 

... 

id.  II 
+  11 

0 

4 

... 

+ 

0 

5 

St.  Sabbas         .... 

+ 

, 

0 

6 

St.  Nicholas       .... 

+  £d. 

id. 

II 

7 

St.  Ambrose      .... 

+  11 

lid. 

8 

Immaculate  Conception  B.V.M. 

... 

+ 

II 

g.d. 

... 

I  c. 

9 

Of  the  Octave. 

10 

Of  the  Octave.     Commem.  St. 
Melchiades 

... 

+ 

ii 

St.  Damasus      .... 

... 

+ 

12 

Of  the  Octave. 

13 

St.  Lucy 

+  id. 

II 

14 

Of  the  Octave. 

15 

Octave  of  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception. 

16 

17 
18 

St.  Eusebius      .... 

... 

+  id. 

0 

[Ann 

unciation 

19 

20 

Vigil         ....     [St. 

Ignatius 

21 
22 

St.  Thomas,  apostle 

+  11 

II 

... 

2C 

23 

24 

Vigil. 

25 

Christmas          .... 

+ 

26 

St.  Stephen       .... 

+ 

II 

... 

2  C 

27 

St.  John,  apostle       .               [  + 

St.  James 

... 

... 

2  C 

28 

The  Holy  Innocents . 

+ 

id. 

II 

2  C 

29 

St.  Thomas  a  Becket 

+  id 

id. 

II. 

30 

Sunday  within  the  Octave. 

31 

St.  Sylvester,  pope    . 

+ 

II 

ADDENDA 

I.  (p.    I02). 

Some  interesting  details  concerning  this  Breviary  are 
given  by  Fr.  Doncoeur,  S.J.,  in  an  article  on  "  LTmmaculee 
Conception  aux  XII.-XIV.  siecles  "  in  the  Revue  (Thistotre 
ecclisiastique,  Louvain,  1907,  p.  278. 

II.  (p.  112). 

Since  1904,  articles  have  appeared  in  various  Reviews 
which  throw  additional  light  on  the  origin  of  the  Feast  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception  in  the  West,  but  still  the 
question  does  not  seem  settled  beyond  dispute.  In  any 
case,  it  is  certain  that  traces  of  the  feast  can  be  found  in 
documents  prior  to  the  eleventh  century  for  both  England 
and  Ireland.  Thus  Fr.  H.  Thurston1  says:  "not  to 
speak  of  the  early  Irish  commemoration  of  our  Lady's 
Conception  on  May  2nd  or  3rd,  the  earliest  mention  of 
any  such  feast  occurring  on  its  present  date,  December  8th, 
meets  us  in  English  liturgical  books  of  about  the  year 
iooo2.  .  .   .  the  commemoration  of  our  Lady's  Concep- 

1  "The  Irish  Origins  of  Our  Lady's  Conception  Feast,"  The 
Month,  May  1904,  vol.  ciii.  pp.  449  seqq. 

1  The  Month,  Dec.  1904,  vol.  civ.  pp.  568,  569,— "  English 
and  the  Immaculate  Conception.  * 

253 


254  Addenda 

tion  established  itself  in  England  before  the  Normans 
came,  and  apparently  in  England  alone  out  of  all  the 
countries  of  Western  Europe."1 

In  his  article  of  May  1904  Fr.  Thurston  speaks  of  a 
metrical  Calendar  of  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century, 
in  which  is  found  at  the  date  May  2nd :  concipitur  Virgo 
Maria  cognomine  senis ; 2  further,  the  Martyrology  of 
Gorman,  written,  according  to  Dr.  Whiteley  Stokes,3  by 
an  Irishman  of  the  ninth  century,  also  a  Martyrology  of 
Tallaght  of  the  year  900,  which  the  Bollandists  seem  to 
have  confused  with  the  Felire  of  (Engus,4  both  of  which 
documents  mention  the  Conception  of  Mary  at  the  date 
May  3rd. 

But  why  this  date  of  the  2nd  or  3rd  May,  instead  of 
December  8th  ?  Fr.  Thurston  replies :  "  We  are  inclined 
to  seek  an  explanation  of  this  Irish  Conception  feast  in 
some  oriental  influence,  most  probably  a  Calendar  of 
Coptic  origin."5 

Mr.  Edmund  Bishop6  has  also  studied  the  origin  of 
this  feast,  in  Anglo-Saxon  documents ;  and  in  a  more  recent 
work7  he  returns  to  the  hypothesis  of  an  Italo-Greek 
importation. 

M.  Jugie,  in  the  Revue  Augustinienne,  November  15th, 

1  The  Month,  Dec.  1904,  vol.  civ.  pp.  568,  569, — "  English 
and  the  Immaculate  Conception.5' 

2-3  MSS.  Cotton,  Galba  A.  xviii.,  British  Museum.  The 
Month,  May  1904,  pp.  452-4. 

4  Acta  Sanctorum,  Mail  t.  i.  Prsetermissi. 

6  The  Month,  May  1904,  p.  459. 

6  Downside  Review,  1886. 

7  On  the  Origins  of  the  Feast  of  the  Conception  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  London,  1904. 


Addenda  255 

1908,  seems  to  prefer  this  last  explanation;  but  instead 
of  placing  the  first  stage  of  the  importation  at  Winchester, 
he  places  it  at  Canterbury  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century.  If,  he  says,  it  is  true  that  the  Pope  Vitalian 
(657-672)  chose  Theodore,  a  Greek  monk  of  Tarsus,  to 
govern  the  church  of  Canterbury,  the  feast  came  from  the 
East,  through  Italy. 

These  indications  seemed  to  me  to  be  of  a  nature  to 
interest  the  readers  of  this  translation,  and  to  complete 
what  is  said  on  p.  in,  in  affirming  that  in  the  West,  this 
feast  was  first  celebrated  in  England  (perhaps  in  Ireland), 
while  they  in  no  way  detract  from  the  part  taken  in  it  by 
the  Benedictines. 

Usuard,  alone  among  the  Martyrologists  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  mentions  the  feast  at  December  8th.  This  mention, 
it  is  true,  is  not  found  in  the  edition  of  Du  Sollier,1  but 
Dom  Bouillart  has  published  a  manuscript  which  he  con- 
siders to  be  the  autograph  of  Usuard — it  is  in  any  case 
the  work  of  a  contemporary — in  which  is  found :  ad  oram 
pagine :   Conceptio  beatissime  Dei  genitricis  virginis  Marice? 

III.  (p.  112). 

Fr.  Doncceur  {op.  cit.)  says  that  the  date  1496  must  be 
modified,  for  Sixtus  IV.  died  in  1484  ;  nor  does  he  consider 
the  date  1246  rests  on  any  better  foundation,  and  in  this 
case  the  first  appearance  of  the  festival  will  have  to  be 
ascribed  to  1272.  {Revue  dhistoire  ecclesiastique,  Louvain, 
1907,  p.  276.) 

1  Acta  Sanctorum,  Junii,  t.  vi. 

2  Migne,  Pair.  Lat.,  cxxiv.  779. 


INDEX 


Abelard,  96,  100. 

Absolutions,  74. 

Acca  of  Hexham,  52. 

Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  73,  75. 

Adoptionists,  61. 

Agobard  of  Lyons,  88. 

Alcuin,  59,  90. 

Amalarius  of  Metz,  64-68,  84-89, 

95,  98,  127- 
Ambrose,  30,  34,  36,  67. 
Anglo-Saxons  and  the  Office,  56. 
Annunciation,  82. 
Antiphonal  chanting,  30-32,  36. 
Antiphonary,  50-52,  79,  86,  95,  97, 

106. 
Antiphons,  25-29,  32,  41,  49,  84, 

87,  108,  120,  127,  157. 
Antiphons  of  Our  Lady,  70. 
Antony,  18. 
Apostles,  6,  71. 
Apostolic  Constitutions,  127. 
Arians,  31-34,  61. 
Assumption,  the,  83. 
Athanasius,  19. 
Augustine,  St.,  14,  30,  35,  74. 
Ave  Maria,  the,  155. 
Avignon,  Papal  sojourn  at,  11 5- 117. 

Bardesanus  of  Edessa,  33. 
Baronius,  177,  179,  181,  183,  193. 
Basil,  St.,  13,  24,  25,  32. 
Bede,  Venerable,  52,  56. 
Bellarmine,  176,  181,  183,  193. 
Benedict,  St.,  24,  37,  41,  43,    45, 

49,  65,  67,  69,  72,  75,  105,  109. 
Benedict  of  Aniane,  St.,  71. 
Benedict  Biscop,  St.,  56. 


Benedict,  the  Canon,  100,  no,  113. 
Bernard,  St.,  109,  112. 
Blessings,  74. 
Boniface,  St.,  57,  66. 
Breviaries,    diocesan  :    in     France, 

193;    Parisian,     170,    192,    224; 

Vintimille's,   194,   197,  204,  225  ; 

in  Germany,  220-221. 
Breviarium  Planum,  3,   131,   135— 

172. 
Breviarium    Sane  tee    Cruets,    128, 

136,  139,  158. 
Bulls  :  of  Pius  V.,  "  Quod  a  nobis," 

144,  146,  148,  181  ;  of  Sixtus  V., 

"^Eternus,"    176;     of    Clement 

VIII.,  "Cum  in  Ecclesia,"  181  ; 

of  Urban  VIII..  "  Divinam  Psal- 

modiam,"  186. 

CAESAR  I  us,  St.,  109. 

Gesarius  of  Aries,  St.,  39. 

Callinicus,  25. 

Cantatorium,  54. 

Capitularies,  59. 

CarafTa,  137- 141. 

Carmelites,  65,  164. 

Carolingians,  3,  96. 

Cassian,  20-25,  37-3?,  74- 

Cathedra  Sancti  Petri,  140. 

Centuries  :  Second,  7,  16  ;  Third,  8, 
to,  15,  30  ;  Fourth,  11-20 passim, 
28,  30,  32,  43,  73,  82  ;  Fifth,  35- 
40 passim,  53,  74;  Sixth,  15,  37, 
39,  63,  74,  83  ;  Seventh,  49,  53, 
61,  63,  74;  Eighth,  43,  51,  53, 
66,  7i,  75,  79  ;  Ninth,  51,  60,  64, 
67,71,79,84,86-93;  Tenth,  67, 


256 


Index 


257 


79,  86-93,  97  ;  Eleventh,  70,  97  ; 
Twelfth,  78,  104  ;  Thirteenth,  48. 
71,  78,  101-116  passim;  Four- 
teenth, 48,  80,  IOI-116  passim, 
117-131,  152;  Fifteenth,  117- 
132,  152;  Sixteenth,  71,  117-132 
passim  ;  Seventeenth,  173-191 
passim  ;  Eighteenth,  191 -22 1  ; 
Nineteenth,  220-234. 

Chant,  Roman,  54,  56,  59,  122. 

Chapters,  69. 

Charlemagne,  58,  60,  65,  73. 

Charles  Borromeo,  St.,  142,  164. 

Chrodegang  of  Metz,  58,  64,  70. 

Chrysostom,  St.,  18. 

Churches  of  the  East,  5,  9,  16,  18, 
20-31  passim,  38,  45;  the 
West,  5,  11,  16,  18-20,  29-43 
passim;  Africa,  37;  Antioch, 
33;  Burgundy,  97,  100;  Con- 
stantinople, 33  ;  England,  63, 
171  ;  Egypt,  38,  41,  45  5  France, 
142,  167-171,  186,  191-206,  215, 
223-227  ;  the  Frankish  Empire, 
57-60,  65,  67,  86-89;  Gaul,  30, 
37-40,  63,  87  ;  Germany,  57,  63, 

66,  97, 115, 141, 171,  222-227; the 
Greeks  in  Syria,  30,  32 ;  Italy, 
40,  62,  163 ;  Jerusalem,  7,  26, 
28,  33  ;  the  Latins,  8,  10,  35,  60, 
62 ;  Metz,  88 ;  Milan,  30,  60, 
164;  Rome,  io~  1 8  passim,  31, 
36,  38,  41,    43,    57,  60,  62,  64, 

67,  75,  85,  87,  89,  91-93,  97- 
101  passim,  no,  112,  116,  118; 
Spain,  63,  105,  142,  166. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  8. 

Clement  of  Rome,  8. 

Coffin,  199. 

Coislin,  Cardinal,  195. 

Columban,  St.,  41. 

Commission  of  the  Index,  143-148. 

Conciliar  Decrees  from  506  a.d.  to 

567  A.  D.,  38. 
Congregation  of  Reform,  206. 
Congregation  of  Rites,  2,  151,  177, 

179,  186,  234. 
Councils:  of  Aix,  169;  Bayeux,  168; 

Bourges,  169  ;  Braga,  61  ;  Cloves- 


hoe,  57  ;  Frankfort,  61  ;  London, 
in;  Narbonne,  169;  Nicea,  5, 
14  ;  Rheims,  168  ;  Rouen,  167  ; 
Toledo,  82 ;  Toulouse,  169 ; 
Tours,  168;  Trullo,  83;  Trent, 
3,  48,  63,  135-172  ;  the  Vatican, 
229. 

Curia,  Papal,  3,  47,  94,  96,  100- 
104,  in,  116,  118. 

Cyprian  of  Carthage,  10. 

Didache,  8. 
Diodore,  32. 

Dominicans,  65,  164,  187. 
Dominic  Soto,  129. 
Doxology,  32-34,  42. 

Egbert  of  York,  51. 

Elvira,  synod  of,  II,  44. 

Embertides,  14,  15,  80,  99,  154. 

Emperors  :  Trajan,  7  ;  Constan- 
tine,  12  ;  Justinian,  38  ;  Charle- 
magne, 58,  60,  65,  73. 

Ephrem,  33. 

Etheria,  19,  25,  28,  44,  81. 

Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  12. 

Faustus  of  Riez,  31,  37. 

Febronianum,  227. 

Ferial   Office,    48,    104,    III,    119, 

127,    137,    151,    153,    190,    196, 

205,  208,  234. 
Ferial  prayers,  65,  67,  154. 
Flavian,  32. 
Franciscans,     48,     102-112,     164, 

1S7. 

Galli,  213,  215. 

Gallicanism,  3,  193,  202. 

Gerbert,  51. 
i  Gesualdo,  177. 
i  Goldwell,  Thomas,  143. 
I  Grancolas,  38,  195,  198. 

Gregory  of  Tours,  St.,  40. 

Guy  of  Arezzo,  97. 

Harlay,  Francois  de,  194,  198. 

Helisachar,  87,  88,  95. 

Henry  of  Germany,  St.,  92,  97. 

17 


258 


Index 


Hilary  of  Poitiers,  30. 

Hippolytus,  10  ;  Canons  of,  33. 

Homilarium,  the,  90. 

Homily,  the,  89-92,  126,  157,  160, 
184. 

Hours,  canonical,  1-45  passim,  54, 
63-65,  70,  72,  84,  107-109,  116, 
119, 122;  Matins,  6-4$ passim,  64, 

68,  74,  77,  95,  98,  107,  110,  126, 
157;  Nocturns,  6-45  passim) 
Lauds,  6-^passim,  6^-6Spassi?n, 
107,  no,  126,  154;  Prime,  19, 
22,  37,  39,  64,  152,  154;  Terce, 
10-39  passim  (see  Hours,  Little) ; 
Sext  and  None,  10-39  (see  Hours, 
Little)  ;  Vespers, 7-4$  passim,  63, 
65-68,  74,  108,  126,  152,  154; 
Compline,  19-39 /tar/w,  65,  108, 
113,  126;  Hours,  Little,  64,  66, 

69,  75,  108,  in,  126,  154,  156. 
Humanism,  120-122. 

Hymns,  29-46  passim,  49,  67-70, 
115,  120,  180,  184-189,  199, 
200. 

Hypatius,  St.,  25. 

Ignatius  of  Antioch,  St.,  32. 
Immaculate    Conception,    Festival 

of,  III. 
Intercalary  Sundays,  158. 
Isidore  of  Seville,  St.,  61. 

Jansenism,  3,  193,  194. 

Jerome,  34,  36,  56,  62. 

Jesuits,  164,  187. 

John  de  Arze,  119,  124,  130,  136. 

Josephism,  221. 

Justin  Martyr,  St.,  8. 

Leandkr,  St.,  61. 
Leclercq,  Dom,  33,  51,  53. 
Lections,  48,  62,  69,  71-78,  89-91, 

103,  109,  in,  126. 
Legends,  158-160,   162,   183,   193, 

199. 
Leontius,  32. 
Lercair,  216. 

Liber  Antiphonalis ,  49. 

Liber  Ponlificalis,  15,  81,  99,  103. 


Liber  Responsoralis ,  49. 

Liturgy,  changes  in  the,  tenth' and 
eleventh  centuries,  91-93  ;  seven- 
teenth century,  191-203. 

Louis  XVIII. ,  223. 

Maban,  52. 

Mabillon,  67,  84. 

Martin  de  Azpilcueta,  129. 

Martyrology,  corrections  in,  174. 

Melania  the  younger,  life  of,  37. 

Mozarabic  rite,  61,  81,  99. 

Nativity  of  Our  Lady,  The,  83. 
Noailles,  Cardinal  de,  197. 

Octave,  104  note,  154,  155,  179. 

Offices,  additional :  De  Beata 
Maria,  105,  108,  120,  127,  153, 
163;  Defunctorum,  105,  120,  127, 
153,  163.  ;  >fc* 

Ordo,  5,  37,  56,  60,  119;  Clunia- 
censis,  78  ;  Romanus,  56,  67,  73, 
76,  90,  96,   100-116  passim,  118. 

Our  Lady,  Festivals  of,  81-84,  114- 
116,  150,  210. 

Pacomius,  St.,  19. 

Paul  the  Deacon,  75,  90. 

Paulinus,  31,  43. 

Pepin,  King,  58. 

Peregrinatio  S.  Sylvia;,  19,  25,  28, 

44,  81. 

Peter  de  Luna,  118. 
Philocalus,  16. 
Pliny,  7. 
Popes — 

Calixtus  I.  (217-22),  15. 

Damasus  (366-84),  36,  56,  63. 

Celestine  I.  (422-32),  31. 

Gelasius  (492-96),  75,  81. 

Gregory    the    Great    (590-604), 

49-55,  59,  72,  73,  75,  79,  197- 
Honorius  I.  (625-38),  75. 
Agatho  (678-81),  56. 
Sergius  I.  (687-701),  81. 
Gregory  II.  (715*37),  57- 
Stephen  (752-     ),  58. 
Adrian  I.  (772-95),  51. 


Index 


259 


Popes  {continued) — 
Leo  III.  (795-816),  92. 
Leo  IV.  (847-55),  60,  83. 
John  XIX.  (1024-33),  97. 
Leo  IX.  (1048-54),   in. 
Alexander     II.     (1061-73),     81, 

in. 
Gregory     VII.     (1073-85),     77, 

80,  93,  98,  107,  in,  201. 
Innocent  II.  (1130-43),  100. 
Alexander  III.  (1159-81),  106. 
Innocent    III.    (119S-1216),    91, 

102,   113. 
Gregory     IX.     (1227-41),      102, 

113. 
Urban  IV.  (1261-64),  114. 
Nicolas  III.  (1277-S0),  102. 
Boniface  VIII.  (1294-1303),  114. 
John  XXII.  (1316-34),  in. 
Clement  VI.  (1342-52),  119. 
Gregory  XI.  (1370-78),  102,  105. 
Urban  VI.  (1378-89),    114,  118. 
Benedict  XIII.  (1394-1424),  117. 
Nicolas  V.  (1447-55),   120,   121. 
Calixtus      III.    (1455-58),     115, 

121. 
Pius  II.  (1458-64),  121. 
Paul  II.  (1464-71),  115. 
Sixtus  IV.  (1471-84),  112,   122. 
Julius  II.  (1503-1513),  121. 
Leo  X.  (1513-21),  121,  122,  123. 
Clement    VII.    (1523-34),     124, 

138. 
Paul   III.    (1534-49),    129,    139, 

151. 
Paul    IV.    (1555-59),    124,    131, 

138-141,  160. 
Pius  IV.  (1559-65),  136,  142. 
Pius    V.    (1566-72),    125,    135- 

172,  182. 
Gregory  XIII.    (1572-85),    149, 

165,  173-175. 
Sixtus  V.  (1585-90).  174-178. 
Gregory  XIV.    (1590-91),    174- 

178. 
Clement  VIII.  (1592-1605),  151, 

159,  160,  164,  174,  178-183. 
PaulV.  (1605-21),  182. 
Gregory  XV.  (1621-23),  183. 


Popes  {continued) — 

Urban  VIII.  (1623-44),  133,  151, 
183-189. 

Innocent  X.  (1644-55),  I9°- 

Alexander  VII.  (1655-67),  190. 

Clement  IX.  (1667-69),  190. 

Clement  X.  (1670-76),  190. 

Clement  XII.  (1730-40),  204. 

Benedict    XIV.   (1740-58),    182, 
192,  204,  206-219. 

Clement  XIII.  (1758-69).  221. 

Clement  XIV.  (1769-74),  222. 

Pius  VI.  (1775-99),  222. 

Pius  VII.  (1800-23),  227. 

Leo  XII.  (1823-29),  227. 

Pius  VIII.  (1829-30),  227. 

Gregory  XVI.  (1831-46),  228. 

Pius  IX.  (1846-78),  226,  228,  231. 

Leo  XIII.  (1878-1903),  151,  232. 
Prayers,  70,  105,  ill,  113. 
Preces feriales,  65,  67,  154. 
Presentation,  84. 
Proper  for  each  country,  172. 
Propriwn  de  Tempore,  78,  no,  ill, 

119,  146,  157-161,  186,  217. 
Propriwn  Sanctonwi,  78,  186. 
Psalms,  Gradual,  70,  105,  113,  120, 

153,    163;    Penitential,   70,    105 

113,  120,  153,  163. 
Psalter,  text  of  the,  36,  62,  71,  78, 

102,  107,  156. 
Psalteriuvi  per    Hebdo7nadam^   41 

65-67,  161,  186. 
Purification,  81. 
Putta  of  Rochester,  52. 

Quignonez,  Cardinal,  48, 125-132, 
135-137,  138,  147,  159. 

Rabanus  Maurus,  68. 

Raoul  of  Tongres,    101,   103,   io6) 

108,  in,  124. 
Recitation   of  the  Office,  38,    112, 

124,  125,  126,  128,  138,  147,  192. 
Religious  Orders,  164,  187. 
Responds,  49,  84,  87,  92,  107,  11S, 

120,  127,  157. 
Responsory,  the.  54,  86,  95. 


260 


Index 


Rites,  Congregation  of,  2,  151,  177, 

179,  i86,  234. 
Robert  the  Pious,  92. 
Robinet,  199. 

Rubrics,  138,  151,  178,  181. 

Sacramentary,  54 ;  Gelasian,  83. 
Santeuil,  194,  199. 
Satuminus  of  Toulouse,  St.,  10. 
Schism  of  the  West,  48  ;  effects  of, 

117-121. 
Script ura,  occurrente  de,  157. 
Sequences  and  tropes,  98. 
Shepherd  of  Hennas,  11. 
Silvia,  St.,  19,  25,  28,  44,  81. 
Socrates  the  historian,  32. 
Sorbonne,  129,  167. 
Stephen  of  Liege,  80. 
Suffrages,  70,  90,  105. 
Sulpicians,  225. 
Sunday    Offices,     119,     126,     137, 

180,  190,    196,    205,    207,    209, 
218. 


Synods :   of  Milan,  165  ;  of  Trier, 
112  ;  of  Elvira,  II,  44. 

Te  Deum,  107,  no,  113. 
Tertullian,  8-10,  16. 
Theatines,  124.  137-141. 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  33. 
Theodoret,  33. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  St.,  114. 
Thomassin,  38,  193. 
Tommasi,  Blessed,  106,  127. 

Valenti,  206. 

Vatican  Council,  229. 

Versicles,  23,  2>^t  127. 

Vigier,  Fr.,  197. 

Vigils,  11,  13,  19-22,  27-30,  34,  40, 

44,  54,  64,  107. 
Votive  Office,  234. 
Vulgate,  175. 

Walafrid  Strabo,  62,  68. 
Wilfrid,  St.,  56. 


printed  and  published  by  the  catholic  truth  society, 
69  south wark  bridge  road,  london,  s.e. 


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